Kindly Care said it raised $5.4 million of Series A financing in a round led by Javelin Venture Partners and joined by MHS Capital and Jackson Square Ventures. The company has now raised $9.5 million.
A press release follows:
Kindly Care Closes $5.4 Million Series A Funding Round Led by Javelin Venture Partners
Funding to support innovative solutions for families in need of caregivers
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – JULY 17, 2018 – Kindly Care, the leading elder care marketplace, announced today it has completed a $5.4 million series A financing round led by Javelin Venture Partners. Additional investors also include MHS Capital and Jackson Square Ventures. Kindly Care tackles the challenges that the aging population is facing, including the exploding cost of care and the caregiver shortage crisis. The round brings the company’s total equity raised to date to $9.5 million.
When it comes to finding care for aging loved ones, cost is a major issue when deciding between utilizing a home care agency or cutting corners and hiring people without proper background checks or experience. With this life changing decision for families in mind, Kindly Care bridges that gap between the self-service model and managed services in elder care. Its marketplace offers an endless supply of background checked caregivers, and families also get a fully compliant turnkey solution that allows them to be a W-2 household employer and comply with Department of Labor’s ruling that most caregivers are employees and not independent contractors.
“Craigslist and Care.com have demonstrated that families like the cost and control advantages of the self-service model. However, anyone can sign up on those websites as a caregiver, background checks are optional, and support is not adequate. I wanted Kindly Care to be the first elder care marketplace that gave me enough confidence to use for my own family members,” said Co-Founder and CTO Erik Fantasia.
Since its launch in 2015, thousands of families have used Kindly Care for their care needs, and over 100,000 caregivers have applied to join the marketplace. Unique to the platform, caregivers’ profiles all include a personal video. These videos allow families to virtually meet their caregivers even before they interview them in person. In the next step, clients select who they want to meet in person and interview them at home prior to making any commitments. Once both the client and the caregiver have agreed to work with each other and have negotiated their hourly rate, Kindly Care obtains a tax ID for the employer, sets up a household payroll with weekly tax withholding, starts tracking regular and overtime hours, generates paystubs, and handles wage garnishment letters and all other administrative aspects of W-2 household employment.
“When we started this journey four years ago, we were confident there were millions of families who were paying their caregivers under the table, and who would be willing to formalize those relationships if there was an easy to use framework that ensured compliance with all labor and tax regulations,” said Co-Founder and CEO Igor Lebovic. “We’re excited to see that our product is resonating with families and caregivers.”
The series A investment will be used to fuel additional growth of the company’s vision to provide a simple and safe solution for affordable elderly care, fund development of additional capabilities for the platform, and to support national expansion.
“Hiring a private caregiver is incredibly hard. There are numerous labor and tax regulations to consider, as well as challenges like vetting and staffing to overcome. But outsourcing the care to agencies is far too expensive for many people. Kindly Care’s platform allows families to enjoy the best of both worlds – convenience, safety and compliance of agencies and the savings and control of the private hire model,” said Alex Gurevich, Managing Director at Javelin Venture Partners, who will be joining Kindly Care’s board of directors.
About Kindly Care
Kindly Care was created to make it incredibly simple to privately hire caregivers without having to worry about sourcing, safety or compliance. It has over 100,000 caregivers in its directory, and families can review caregivers’ videos before meeting them. To make the ongoing management of caregivers as seamless as possible, Kindly Care offers free iOS and Android apps that handle the scheduling, task lists, time sheets, daily reports, and messaging between clients and caregivers. https://www.kindlycare.com/
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