Better Caring, a peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace for aged care and disability support services recently announced it has closed a Series B round of AUD$3 million with investment from Ellerston Ventures, the growing venture arm of Ellerston Capital.
The investment is the fourth made by Ellerston Ventures, whose shareholdings also include online marketplaces HiPages and Genero.
The AUD$3 million funding comes 12 months after a $2.3 million raise supported by Computershare co-founder Tony Wales, and will be used to support the company’s aggressive geographic expansion, as it looks to build out its network of support workers in new markets.
Ellerston Ventures Investment Director David Leslie, who managed the investment and has closely monitored the recent legislative and funding changes across the sector, believes that Better Caring is firmly positioned to open up the $20 billion Aged Care Market and benefit from the $22 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme.
“We have been watching the market trends and growth in this space for a number of years. Better Caring stood out as a leader because it creates an entirely new approach for an industry that is massively challenged by the major legislative changes.”
“Community aged care and disability support represents a high growth opportunity. Connecting those who need care and support services directly with a community of care workers is a simple, yet revolutionary solution that delivers greater choice and flexibility to consumers,” said Leslie.
What is the story behind Better Caring?
Co-Founder and Executive Director, Peter Scutt said he was inspired to create Better Caring based on the care experiences of his own parents, who like most people, wanted to remain living in their own home. Scutt says that receiving such significant funding from industry leaders validates Better Caring’s vision to build something of this scale.
“Staying active in the community was important to my parents, but finding a skilled and affordable care worker who could connect with them socially was proving to be a challenge. The situation with my parents made me realise that this industry was crying out for change,” he said.
P2P networks have a proven track record in other industries so it made sense to co-founder Tony Charara that innovative technology offered the solution to a broken industry model. Better Caring is agile and responsive to the new market-driven world; the whole process is more efficient, at the same time as empowering the clients and care workers.
“People are increasingly expecting to age well and actively, empowered by choice and in control over their lives. We are able to deliver choice while removing overheads, it’s a powerful model for improving outcomes, both in quality of care and affordability,” Charara said.
Great timing for this funding
The funding is well timed to take advantage of huge opportunities following the commencement of the full rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme from July 1 this year and important changes to aged care legislation taking place in February 2017, focused on improving consumer choice across the industry.
As policy experts predict major pressure on existing service-provider organisations once changes are fully rolled out, Better Caring expect this funding boost to accelerate massive growth with the paradigm shift in power to consumers and workers.
“We have already delivered over 70,000 hours of care, which continues to grow as we expand our community. With this funding we expect very significant growth.”