Customer Spotlight: Kiddie Academy

What happens when a dentist and a neuroscientist go looking for childcare in Utah?

When Dr. Drashti Kaneria and her husband Dr. Shardul Kaneria first moved here with their children from Melbourne, Australia, they immediately sought out a daycare facility that would prioritize health and early childhood education. But they quickly found that their expectations did not meet reality.

“When we started touring facilities, we either saw a clean facility or we saw a facility that educated children, but we never found one where all of our needs were being met,” says Drashti. “We always wondered, why do we have to take it for granted that if children go to childcare, they get sick?”

Drashti and Shardul were no ordinary clientele, but they weren’t alone in their search. “Any young parent who lives in Utah would relate to how hard it is to find a high-quality educational childcare facility,” says Drashti.

And yet, their qualifications set them apart, making them perfectly suited for creating their own daycare, centered around health and a specialized curriculum. Drashti is a dentist with exacting hygiene and health standards, and Shardul is an educational neuroscientist with a deep understanding of how a young child’s brain develops.

Fast forward to today, the Kanerias are now the owners behind three Kiddie Academy locations, in Herriman, Daybreak and Saratoga Springs. They didn’t reach this point overnight, but they did so in a hurry, growing faster than most new businesses. Thanks to a little bit of help from the right bank, they were able to expand and scale without slowing down.

Empowering and Educating Children

When Drashti and Shardul first started out, they were inspired to create a facility that would be clean, safe, and provide a high-quality curriculum that would support children throughout their formative years.

“Our job through Kiddie Academy is to provide a full package. There are no compromises,” says Shardul. “We go above and beyond, whether it’s by offering a check-in station with fingerprint access or a full-time chef and a full commercial kitchen on-site. Our job is to make sure that we offer the highest industry standards.”

At each location, toys are sanitized with hospital-grade equipment. Check-in runs on a biometric scanner, where a parent’s fingerprint is required to open inner doors. Parents can also visually check on their child through the Watch Me Grow app, a secure live feed from the Kiddie Academy classrooms and playgrounds. At the center of it all is their Life Essentials curriculum, where every child is empowered to learn and grow in a safe and supportive environment.

Growing Faster Than Planned

When the couple first started the process of building their dream, they had to learn everything about owning a business while having just moved to a new country. “We knew we had a vision and we knew Utah had a need for us,” says Shardul.

Their first center in Herriman was a ground-up construction that was financed through another bank. The plan from there was to build a second location in Saratoga Springs. “With ground-up construction, you control the script, you control the timeline, and that is a relatively easy challenge for us to go through,” says Shardul. “But then a local competitor came up for sale, and we knew that the building, the location, and everything were up to a Kiddie Academy standard.”

They hadn’t planned to expand into a third facility so quickly, and they had to act fast. This existing childcare center was located in Daybreak, and they suddenly had a narrow, fixed window in which to secure financing. They had to find a bank that not only shared their vision but could get them across the finish line in time while keeping their Saratoga project in motion.

So, they asked around. Friends and family with their own companies kept naming the same place: First Utah Bank.

Challenge Accepted

From the get-go, First Utah Bank’s team accepted the challenge and set the pace. They quickly drove out to Herriman to tour the center in person and understand where the Kanerias were trying to go with their business. “They spent the time to get to know us, came down to Herriman to visit, and experienced the vision for our new location,” Drashti says.

Using SBA financing, the bank assisted with both the Daybreak purchase and the Saratoga Springs build, keeping things moving at the speed each one called for. “What I love about First Utah Bank is their response time,” Drashti says. “They are very reliable and will have your answers turned around very quickly.”

The team helped the Kanerias feel more confident by providing the same service and attention to detail that the couple expects from themselves. Going above and beyond with quick answers, insightful feedback, and efficient processes, First Utah Bank treated them like partners.

Three Locations in Three Years

On paper, this story might look like it was just a simple banking transaction. But for the Kanerias, it meant a lot more. “I might have just secured an SBA loan for my three locations,” Drashti says, “but in Mom terms… I’ve just had three babies in three years.” To her, starting each academy has been like giving birth to a new dream, and it keeps getting better and better.

Kiddie Academy of Saratoga Springs recently opened in June 2026—just in time for summer campers—in one of the fastest-growing communities in the state. And as they continue to keep building, the Kanerias have no intention of changing banks.

“If you want a bank that trusts you, if you want a bank who believes in your vision,” Shardul says, “First Utah Bank is the bank that you should be going to.”