The progressive ageing of the population, the rise in chronic conditions and the need to relieve pressure on hospitals and residential care homes (RSA) are leading to home care effectively playing an increasingly strategic role in coordinating care providers, families and local services, and requiring ever more innovative tools.
It is against this backdrop that Sencare, a healthtech start-up founded within Startup Bakery and specialising in the digitalisation of home care, has announced that it has closed a post-seed funding round of 500,000 euros thanks to the support of Vincenzo Papa’s Consis, which has further strengthened its investment in the company, Gama Partecipazioni, led by Gianmarco Ferrari, Raimondo Milano Franco d’Aragona and other angel investors.
Added to the 500,000 euros previously invested (of which 300,000 came from Startup Bakery via SB Lab during the pre-seed and seed phases, and 200,000 from Consis), this latest round brings the start-up’s total funding to one million euros. The new funds will be used to further develop the technology platform, expand the network of healthcare professionals and consolidate the company’s commercial presence in the Italian market.
“Today, home care is still managed through phone calls, Excel spreadsheets, WhatsApp messages and fragmented processes. “Our vision is to offer professionals in the sector a single operating system that allows them to coordinate people, activities and information in a simple, secure and efficient way,” says Gennaro A. Garoldi, CEO of Sencare (pictured with the team), in a statement. “This funding round will enable us to further accelerate the development of the platform and expand the ecosystem of services we are building around home care.”
As part of its growth, Sencare has begun to forge meaningful local relationships through strategic partnerships. The start-up is also one of the ‘Zoners’ at OpenZone, Zambon’s campus in Bresso, which is home to some of the leading biotechnology, pharmaceutical and advanced gene therapy companies at both national and international level.
“Ever since its inception, we have seen Sencare as much more than just management software: we have seen it as an opportunity to tackle a real, structural problem with a scalable and measurable solution – a digital infrastructure capable of supporting the evolution of home care in Italy,” says Alessandro Arrigo, CEO and co-founder of Startup Bakery – The results achieved by our clients confirm the validity of the work carried out by the entire team and demonstrate how an approach based on first-party data can free up valuable time for caring for people, whilst reducing operational inefficiencies and complexity. The completion of this funding round confirms the value of the progress made so far and enables us to embark on a new phase of growth in a market that, in the coming years, will have an increasingly significant impact on people’s quality of life and on the sustainability of the healthcare system.”
This fundraising comes at a particularly dynamic time for the company, which aims to further strengthen its role as a key player for home care providers. To this end, the launch of a further funding round of at least two million euros will be announced shortly; this will no longer be to support day-to-day operations but to scale up the company’s approach, increasing its effectiveness across the region – not just in Italy, as Sencare already has a presence in Switzerland.
The cloud platform developed by Sencare helps cooperatives, care organisations, pharmacies and healthcare organisations to manage home care in an integrated manner. The aim is to reduce the organisational complexity of home care and improve coordination amongst all those involved, by centralising all activities within a single digital environment – from planning care interventions and coordinating care workers, to monitoring activities in the local area and communicating with families, as well as handling numerous administrative processes.
In projects already underway, Sencare has recorded a reduction of up to 40 per cent in the time spent on planning activities and up to 65 per cent in administrative errors, enabling organisations to reclaim – thanks to data and the use of AI – up to nine man-days per month previously taken up by low-value-added tasks. The automation of operational workflows and the optimisation of travel also enable professionals in the field to devote more time to providing direct care to people, reducing the administrative burden and improving the overall quality of service.
On the one hand, the platform enables professionals to view their work schedules, record and verify home visits via geolocation, and update visit details in real time. At the same time, it provides a secure and traceable communication system that replaces informal methods such as phone calls, text messages and personal chats, helping to ensure greater data protection and compliance with privacy regulations. A central role is also played by families, who can access up-to-date information on scheduled and completed visits, view the visit calendar and send requests directly to the organisation providing the service. In this way, care workers, coordinators, service users and family members share the same flow of information, promoting a more efficient and transparent management of care.
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