Lottie, the free online marketplace that connects care seekers and retirees to U.K. care homes, home care services and retirement living communities, has raised a $21 million (£16.35 million) Series A funding round led by Accel, with participation from previous investor General Catalyst. This brings the total amount raised by the company to $31 million (£25 million). Lottie will use the investment to confront the growing social care crisis and elevate the standard of later living by further investing in its suite of technology products that significantly improves the care seeker experience. The company will expand its 50-strong team based in London, with the aim of doubling headcount in 2024.
Across the UK, care home availability has reached its lowest point in over a decade, amid a backdrop of an ageing population and stagnant state funding: new government data suggests there is a £2.3 billion shortfall in England’s care home funding. Moreover, the experience for care seekers is complicated, stressful and time consuming, with people contacting an average of six services before finding a provider that fits their personal care needs. Most have no real sense of how much care should cost, little up-to-date information on services and no support throughout what can be a distressing time.
Lottie was founded in 2021 by brothers Will and Chris Donnelly, who experienced firsthand the struggles of finding affordable care services for family members. The brothers launched Lottie with the goal of elevating later life for the older generation, modernising the process of finding care, and ensuring that standards of care are improved across the whole sector.
Lottie will become the UK’s first end-to-end marketplace experience for finding care, simplifying the search process so anyone can seamlessly book care online in a similar way to reserving a hotel room via booking.com or Expedia. With Lottie, care seekers can find, compare and enquire directly with more than 4,000 high-quality care, home care and retirement living services, as well as having the support of Lottie’s team of care experts through each stage of the search process. Lottie also grants full transparency of pricing and service availability, an industry first that means care seekers can see exactly how much their care will cost and whether the service is accepting new clients.
Beyond its core marketplace, Lottie has developed Found by Lottie, a suite of technology tools it acquired in 2022, designed to upgrade the outdated services offered within care homes themselves. Found offers care providers powerful tools to effectively manage enquiries, customer relationships, networking, occupancy, finance and billing, and to show real-time bed availability.
The fresh investment will be used to expand Lottie’s marketplace coverage in the U.K. and to continue developing the platform’s innovative software offerings for care homes. The company will also invest in artificial intelligence and has plans to develop a data insight tool aimed at helping the industry’s key stakeholders make better informed decisions and to help the sector become sustainable in the long-term.
