Oodi’s first UK steps: British par­ents recog­nise the need

Oulu-based babytech start­up Ood­io Oy intro­duced its Oodi appli­ca­tion to British fam­i­lies at The Baby Show in Lon­don on 23–25 Octo­ber 2026. The event brought new fam­i­lies ready to par­tic­i­pate in Oodi’s pilot test­ing, con­nec­tions in the UK health­care and par­ent­ing sec­tor, and first-hand insights into a larg­er inter­na­tion­al mar­ket.

For the founders, it was a return to famil­iar ground: they had exhib­it­ed at The Baby Show sev­er­al times with their ear­li­er ven­ture, Onni Care. This time, they brought a new solu­tion devel­oped in Oulu. Designed in Eng­lish from the start, Oodi made the UK a nat­ur­al first step into inter­na­tion­al mar­kets.

Oodi helps par­ents under­stand their baby’s cry­ing pat­terns over time. Its devel­op­ment has been informed by research, dis­cus­sions with par­ents and health­care pro­fes­sion­als, and ear­ly test­ing in Fin­land.

British par­ents recog­nise the prob­lem

Many vis­i­tors grasped the idea imme­di­ate­ly. Some came to the stand specif­i­cal­ly after dis­cov­er­ing Oodi in the exhibitor list­ings, while oth­ers encoun­tered the con­cept for the first time. Sev­er­al fam­i­lies signed up to try the appli­ca­tion, with some ready to begin pilot test­ing now and oth­ers plan­ning to join after their babies are born.

“It was an excit­ing week­end. Talk­ing direct­ly with par­ents rein­forced sev­er­al find­ings from our ear­li­er research in Fin­land and gave us valu­able new per­spec­tives. There’s noth­ing quite like hear­ing people’s thoughts first-hand,” says Eras­mus van Niek­erk, CEO and co-founder of Ood­io Oy.

The team also met health­care pro­fes­sion­als, includ­ing peo­ple work­ing with­in the NHS, as well as rep­re­sen­ta­tives of busi­ness­es in the baby and par­ent­ing sec­tor. The Baby Show also pub­lished Oodi’s arti­cle, Should I Be Wor­ried About My Baby’s Cry­ing?, explor­ing why under­stand­ing cry­ing pat­terns over time mat­ters.

Lessons from Oulu: the right moment mat­ters

In Fin­land, Oodio’s pilot with the Kaakkuri and Oulun­sa­lo child health clin­ics has high­light­ed the impor­tance of tim­ing. Cry­ing typ­i­cal­ly increas­es dur­ing the first weeks of life, mean­ing that par­ents intro­duced to Oodi very ear­ly may not yet recog­nise a need for it. The team is using this insight to explore how fam­i­lies can be intro­duced to Oodi when it is most rel­e­vant to them.

“One thing we’ve learned is that tim­ing mat­ters. Par­ents may not see the need for Oodi imme­di­ate­ly after their baby is born, but that can change as cry­ing increas­es. We want to make sure fam­i­lies dis­cov­er Oodi when it can gen­uine­ly help them,” says Satu Niemelä, co-founder of Ood­io Oy. 

Explor­ing the poten­tial for health­care

The response from British par­ents, togeth­er with insights from the ongo­ing work in Fin­land, pro­vides an encour­ag­ing foun­da­tion for Oodi’s next steps. The next ques­tion is how infor­ma­tion gath­ered at home could sup­port com­mu­ni­ca­tion between fam­i­lies and health­care pro­fes­sion­als. In Novem­ber, the Ood­io team will meet with pae­di­atric doc­tors and nurs­es in Fin­land to explore this ques­tion fur­ther. Their feed­back will help shape the next stages of devel­op­ment and future research.

“We want to hear the crit­i­cal views as much as the pos­i­tive ones. That is how we make sure Oodi brings real val­ue to fam­i­lies and to the pro­fes­sion­als who sup­port them,” Niemelä says.

About Oodi

Oodi is a Finnish babytech solu­tion devel­oped by Ood­io Oy in Oulu. The appli­ca­tion helps par­ents under­stand their baby’s cry­ing pat­terns over time. It is a con­sumer well­be­ing prod­uct, not a diag­nos­tic tool. Oodi is avail­able on Google Play, with an iOS ver­sion com­ing soon.

Con­tact per­son
Eras­mus van Niek­erk
CEO & Co-founder, Ood­io Oy
erasmus@oodi.tech

Source (text and image): Ood­io Oy