Lottie, the revolutionary online marketplace connecting care seekers and retirees with UK care homes, home care services, and retirement living communities, has successfully raised $21 million (£16.35 million) in a Series A funding round led by Accel, with participation from previous investor General Catalyst.
This funding infusion, bringing Lottie’s total raised amount to $31 million (£25 million), aims to tackle the escalating social care crisis in the UK. Lottie plans to achieve this by investing further in its suite of technology products, enhancing the care seeker experience, expanding its team based in London, and doubling its headcount in 2024.
The UK is currently grappling with a critical shortage of care home availability, compounded by an aging population and stagnant state funding. Recent government data indicates a £2.3 billion shortfall in England’s care home funding. Care seekers face a daunting, complex, and time-consuming process, often contacting multiple services before finding a provider that suits their needs.
Lottie was founded in 2021 by Will and Chris Donnelly, who witnessed the challenges of finding affordable care services for family members. Their firsthand experience drove them to launch Lottie, aiming to enhance later life for the older generation by modernizing the process of finding care and improving care standards across the sector.
Lottie is set to become the UK’s first end-to-end marketplace for finding care, simplifying the search process similar to reserving a hotel room via Booking.com or Expedia. Care seekers can seamlessly find, compare, and enquire directly with over 4,000 high-quality care, home care, and retirement living services through Lottie.
The platform also offers the support of Lottie’s team of care experts throughout the search process, ensuring a smooth experience. Lottie provides full pricing and service availability transparency, allowing care seekers to see exact costs and service availability, a first in the industry.
In addition to its core marketplace, Lottie has developed Found by Lottie, a suite of technology tools acquired in 2022, designed to upgrade services within care homes. Found offers powerful tools for care providers, enabling effective management of enquiries, customer relationships, networking, occupancy, finance, billing, and real-time bed availability. The platform’s goal of “instant bed bookings” could significantly alleviate pressure on the NHS by streamlining the discharge process, reducing costs, and addressing bed-blocking challenges.
Over the last 12 months, Lottie has experienced remarkable growth, with a 300% increase in customers and revenue. The platform currently serves more than 500,000 monthly users and has facilitated matches for tens of thousands of families with care and retirement service providers. Recently, Lottie expanded its marketplace to include home care as a new category, introducing its Direct to Carer solution, granting families more choice and control in the carer selection process.
Lottie’s fresh funding will be directed toward expanding its marketplace coverage, further developing innovative software offerings for care homes, investing in artificial intelligence, and creating a data insight tool to support the industry’s stakeholders in making better-informed decisions, promoting long-term sustainability in the sector. This significant investment positions Lottie as a pivotal player in transforming the care-seeking landscape and enhancing the quality of later living in the UK.
