The home care business faces two fundamental problems, a huge load of administration work and the predictability and availability of care resources. A Swiss e-health SME develops two digital products under two companies to relieve this pain. Both products were tested in the founders own home care organisation in everyday use and were continuously improved.
1. Administration pain
The ambulatory care process is regulated and requires a lot of administration. Existing software is complex and often too expensive. A care app was developed under the Swiss management company to increase care efficiency. During the development and especially during the use the founders noticed that the app covers a problem that has more potential.
2. Predictability and availability of care resources
There are too often, and usually too few, care resources among caregivers with highly fluctuating needs. No structured process exists to match supply of overcapacity and care-demand. Thus, under the care company the SME starts a care sharing platform, enabled by the existing care app to exchange care labour and capabilities amongst professional car-givers. Later, this B2B care sharing will be scaled with a peer-to-peer (P2P) comfort providing-platform offering conveniences by talents directly to caretakers. Those modules will be made accessible through a web-access point and through interfaces to existing care-software. This gives the care sharing platform access to a wide pool of users. With users gained, the company envisions the care sharing platform to scale with other smart web co-operations. Feasibility of the care sharing business is high as similar aggregator concepts are already available (AirBnb, Parship, Batmaid etc.).
The products of the SME enable care-teams to reduce administration costs and earn more money by making optimal use of resources. This solves three main problems of the caregivers: low income and payment for a demanding job, overburdened administration, and suboptimal work allocation. Ultimately, this will lead to more professional caregivers motivated to entering the care market, freeing up care resources, improving the quality of care, making care more personalised and reducing inefficiency and costs. The social contribution of the company is to reduce the care shortage in European countries and valorising the work of home-caregivers.
At present, the outpatient care market for senior citizens in Switzerland amounts to 55'000 nursing staff (23'000 FTEs) and 400’000 caretakers. The care market is growing at an annual rate of 6.8 % (total ambulatory care costs for health insurances and cantons according to the Swiss Federal Statistic Office).
Canton Bern already committed to invest 150K EUR à fond perdu. With the current round of start-up funding, the company’s goal is to accelerate the development of the different applications, especially improve the user experience and the design of the user interface, expand their sales and marketing activities, and fulfil orders. The Swiss SME is currently seeking a seed capital investment of EUR 1.2 m, which will give them the financial flexibility to achieve these goals.
The aim of the company is to generate a volume of business and a profit in the next five years that will enable it to go public or sell the company. Phase A investment round is foreseen when the company scales the business i.e. by going internationally or by adding other operations such as P2P comfort providing-platform.
The Swiss company is seeking partner from the care sectors or related to life sciences (e.g. e-health) and / or long-term care for different types of partnerships.
- Joint venture or license agreements with software companies willing to joint-develop the app to local needs of the partner-country.
- Distribution services agreement to distribute software and business idea in foreign markets and/or to support with market entry.
- Financial agreements in exchange for equity.
