BABYZEN
BABYZEN sells one lightweight stroller model, the YOYO, in several configurations.
The YOYO debuted in 2012 as one of the first ultra-compact strollers. This was pitched to parents who frequently travel and want to store a stroller in the overhead compartment of an airplane (although the policies on this vary from carrier to carrier). Ultracompact strollers can be folded with one hand and often include a carry strap or travel bag.
BABYZEN was founded by a father-son duo, Jean-Michel Chaudeurge and his son, Julien Chaudeurge. Jean-Michel was a designer at the French baby gear company Baeba, for whom he designed the Babycook, the best-seller baby food maker. Julie, meanwhile, worked in marketing for Fiat during the same they re-introduced the Fiat 500 to North America.
As young parents in the early 2000's, Julien and his wife Claire were frustrated with strollers for their baby—they didn't fit in the small trunk of their vehicle, didn't pass through the gates of the metro subway and wasn't allowed in the overhead compartment of most airplanes. At the same time, father and son ran into Gilles Hendry, an engineer, who was struggling to sell a stroller prototype that folded in a compact form. “We saw his prototype: we immediately understood that it was exactly what we needed to make a hit,” said Julien Chaudeurge.[1]
BABYZEN was founded in 2009 in Aix-en-Provence, France and the YOYO was released in 2012. In 2019, BABYZEN reported selling its millionth stroller. In 2021, BABYZEN was acquired for an undisclosed amount by Stokke, the Norwegian baby gear brand best known for its Tripp Trapp high chair.