In the UK and across the world, there exists a social care crisis. The traditional care system is outdated and inefficient and, with more people living longer than ever. The number of people over 65 is estimated to double by 2050. As people are living longer, they are falling sick at the same rate. This increases pressure on an already strained care system. This is where Birdie, a London caretech startup aims to reinvent elderly care at home.
Ambitious growth plans of Birdie
The company just announced that it pocketed £8.2 million funding in a round led by Index Ventures, an international VC firm along with Kamet Ventures. The funding will be used to power Birdie’s next phase of growth in the UK as it scales to meet rapidly growing demand among the care community. Birdie will also invest in product innovation, creating new features to address customer requests.
CEO and Co-founder Max Parmentier said: “We believe the future of care for older people should be helping them to live at home for as long as possible through the delivery of personalised and preventative care. Birdie is already the partner of choice for caregivers up and down the UK, and this funding will help us rapidly increase the number we partner with and what we can offer them – meaning more people benefiting from more affordable, quality care. We’re proud of our mission and the values we embody to pursue it.”
Stephane Kurgan, Venture Partner at Index Ventures, said: “By investing in caretech with Birdie, we are investing in solving the daily challenges of the care community. We firmly believe in Birdie’s vision to make care more personalised and more preventative so that older people can age at home longer, healthier and happier. We’ve been impressed by Birdie’s traction and the calibre of its team, and are very excited to embark on this journey with them.”
James Deeley, Chief Executive of Alina Homecare, said: “Birdie has delivered from day one as a strong technology partner for our Group. Our values and aspirations are closely aligned and Birdie is transforming the way we deliver and monitor our care, with more than 30,000 visits channelled every month through their platform.”
Massive growth!
Founded by Max Parmentier in 2017, Birdie partners with care providers to support the ageing population in living healthily and happily at home for longer. Its intuitive and easy-to-use app lets care providers to efficiently deliver more coordinated, personalised, and preventative care. It enables caregivers reduce the time spent on non-critical work such as admin and frees them up to spend more time on face-to-face with the elderly needing care. Also, it lets them easily communicate and share information with the other care providers, health practitioners, and their families.
Since its debut, Birdie has partnered with almost 500 providers across the UK and supports over 20,000 older people each week. In the past 12 months, the company has seen six times growth in the number of older people it supports. Also, over 3,000 family members turn to Birdie each week for peace of mind about their loved ones.
The caretech company pilots innovative care models by partnering with the NHS to identify Covid-19 symptoms, building polypharmacy AI models, and helping Nottinghamshire health authorities to detect early warning signs of patients’ health risks.