Patronus Closes EUR 27 Million Series A, the Largest-Ever in European Elderly Care
- With its software for smartwatches, Patronus creates a unique access point to seniors.
- Patronus's watch supports seniors in their daily lives, provides peace of mind for relatives and helps to relieve the burden on caregivers.
- The aim of Patronus: Relieving the burden on carers in the face of demographic change and the shortage of carers and doctors.
Berlin, October 5, 2022 – Patronus, the Berlin-based elderly care startup, has raised EUR 27 million in its Series A financing round. The oversubscribed round is the largest-ever Series A in European elderly care. It was led by Paris-based investor Singular and NYC-based Adjacent with participation from Burda Principal Investments (BPI) as well as existing investors Cavalry Ventures and UVC Partners. The Series A was closed less than a year after the company raised EUR 6 million in its Seed round.
"A funding round of this size in the current market environment is not something to be taken for granted. It demonstrates the relevance and urgency that demographic change entails – and the conviction that tech can significantly contribute to addressing the challenges that come with it. The new funding allows us to relentlessly follow our vision of building a world where ageing is delightful and dignified. And we are thrilled to have Singular, Adjacent and BPI – in addition to our existing partners Cavalry and UVC – join us in our mission," says Ben Staudt, co-founder of Patronus.
Eliminating the biggest fear of the elderly and empowering their caregivers
Patronus entered the market in 2021 by addressing the most pressing problem of many elderly people: the fear of ending up in an emergency situation and not getting any help. With elderly people spending the majority of their time by themselves, their daily lives are significantly impacted by this fear. Patronus is solving this problem by offering software that turns smartwatches into digital watches for the elderly. The watch software enables a 24/7 connection to the emergency call centre which has access to the user’s health records and caregiver contacts. It can be used both at home and on the move through a wide-ranging collaboration with Deutsche Telekom. “By wearing the watch, our elderly users know that they can get help if anything happens to them. This makes them more confident and they are less likely to reduce their daily activities. Our goal is to enable the elderly to remain more independent, and we are already seeing this with thousands of our users. On the other hand, the watch and its software create a unique digital access point to the elderly, which can be leveraged by anyone who is involved in caring for the elderly user,” says Ben Staudt.
In the first step, Patronus focuses on offering family members options to be closer to the person being cared for and thus gain assurance about their well-being. This is achieved through the Patronus app, which connects the family with the elderly user via the phone feature. In addition, family members receive a variety of other information about the cared-for through the app, such as their location and activities.
In the future, Patronus wants to make the app accessible to a wider circle of caregivers, such as in-home caregivers, nursing homes and doctors. By providing comprehensive digital data, the care of the elderly will become more efficient and personalised. “Particularly in view of the glaring shortage of skilled nursing staff and the growing shortage of doctors, we need to think about ways to relieve the burden on nursing staff while at the same time ensuring excellent medical care. And we have to think long-term as we know that demographic shift is a global development. We want to ensure that elderly care in 20 years is better than today,” Tim Wagner, co-founder of Patronus.
Patronus will continue its high growth trajectory
With the new funding, Patronus plans to continue its high growth trajectory. After an ongoing beta test of the family app is finalized, Patronus plans to roll out the app in Q4 this year. At the same time, the company will explore opportunities to expand its product range to other stakeholders who can benefit from the digital access point for elderly users.
Investor quotes
“It’s no secret that the population is ageing, and yet senior citizens are still digitally underserved. Combined with technologies that have recently matured, this creates a unique opportunity to offer dedicated connected devices to this age group. With their smartwatch, Patronus has seamlessly integrated a digital touchpoint into the daily lives of seniors, which has unlocked a proprietary way to provide them, and the people around them, with a whole new range of services. The team’s execution over the past year has led to impressive growth rates as well as engagement levels never seen before in this demographic, and we’re truly convinced that Patronus has the potential to become the global leader of the silver economy.” says Jeremy Uzan, Partner at Singular.
“This year, there are two Germans retiring for every German that enters work life. This is reflective of a big shift in demographics globally and will require us to find better ways to care for our elderly. Patronus is helping to address this issue through innovative and unobtrusive technology with best-in-class consumer subscription metrics. I am excited to support their mission going forward!”, says Nico Wittenborn, Founder of Adjacent.
“Being able to raise a Series A of this quality in today’s market demonstrates three things: A very appealing product has landed in a more than receptive market, the timing for the solution is ideal and finally, it is a testament to the excellence of the team. Tim and Ben have demonstrated their ability to execute on their vision time and again. But more importantly, they have managed to attract exceptional talent and a stellar team in a very short period of time – an indispensable skill that will enable Patronus to take the leading role in this new category of tech for the elderly” says Stefan Walter, Managing Partner at Cavalry Ventures.
About Patronus
Patronus is a Berlin-based elderly care startup developing digital tools to make ageing more delightful and dignified. The company currently offers a digital watch software for the elderly as well as a mobile app for carers and family members. It was founded in 2021 by Ben Staudt and Tim Wagner, and is backed by renowned investors like Singular, Adjacent, Cavalry Ventures, UVC Partners and Burda Principal Investments.
www.patronus-group.com and www.patronus-uhr.de
About UVC Partners
UVC Partners is a Munich- and Berlin-based early-stage venture capital firm that invests in European tech startups from pre-seed to series A. With more than €350m under management, the fund typically invests between €0.5m - 10m initially and up to €30m in total per company. With more than 100 industry partners in the network and a close cooperation with UnternehmerTUM, Europe’s leading innovation center, UVC Partners offers startups unique access to talent, industry contacts, and other financial partners.
