Care Sourcer, a platform that connects those seeking care with those providing it, has raised a Seed round of £500,000.
The Edinburgh-based HealthTech firm secured the round from Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV) and BGF Ventures.
Harry Briggs, partner at BGF Ventures, said: “We’re delighted to announce our first BGF Ventures investment in Scotland, and we’re excited to help Care Sourcer address the urgent and growing challenge of matching care seekers to the right available care quickly and transparently.”
Care Sourcer CEO Andrew McGinley said he is “very proud” to have secured this investment and said he feels it validates his firm’s potential.
McGinley previously worked in the care-at-home industry as director of operations at the Prestige Nursing + Care Edinburgh branch. He explained the process of securing care was “completely inefficient” – those seeking care had to call around local providers to check for availability.
This gave McGinley the idea for Care Sourcer, a platform that would enable care seekers to complete an online form explaining their needs, which would then be shared with local care providers, who could contact the care seeker directly with their availability.
“It means care can be arranged in a matter of hours, rather than days,” McGinley said.
The 30-year-old approached Andrew Parfery, who was running the largest care-at-home company in the Lothians, with the concept to see if Parfery would sign up as a provider. Parfery loved the concept so much, McGinley said, that he ended up providing Angel investment and helping co-found the company in 2015.
Both Parfery and McGinley have now successfully exited their previous companies and work full time on Care Sourcer, which launched in June 2016.
There are now six people on the team, based in tech incubator and co-working space Codebase, and the firm generates revenue by charging care providers a commission for the successful placement of care seekers. It’s a fixed cost, but works out at around 3% for the full length of the placement, McGinley explained.
The platform initially launched in Edinburgh and the Lothians, before securing an NHS England contract and partnering with Imperial College London and NHS Gloucestershire. The platform is now used by carers in Birmingham, Edinburgh and the Lothians, Glasgow, Gloucester, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Southampton.
Commenting on his plans for the new Seed funding, the CEO said: “We are looking to expand our technical and marketing teams. We are also going to grow our business in the English markets and expand out from our NHS contracts in London and Gloucestershire.”