Envoy, the "Family Concierge" Service for Seniors, Now Live in 17 Major Markets Across 7 States

San Francisco-based startup raises $3M seed round from SoftTech VC, Lowercase Capital, and others

SAN FRANCISCO--()--Envoy (helloenvoy.com) announced today that its “Family Concierge” service for seniors and family caregivers is now live in 17 major markets across seven states. Thousands of seniors and their families have already turned to Envoy for lightweight, meaningful help to stay in their homes longer, to maintain their independence and to live life to the fullest.

Envoy’s Family Concierge service is offered on a subscription basis and is designed for seniors earlier in the aging journey who simply need lightweight help and support:

  • Trusted Relationship. Clients enjoy a 1:1 trusted relationship with a dedicated Envoy assistant, who is carefully screened and resides in the local area.
  • Essential, Lightweight Help. Envoys can assist clients with essential errands such as grocery shopping and picking up prescriptions, or household tasks like washing dishes or changing a lightbulb.
  • Peace of Mind. Envoy’s Web and mobile apps make it simple for family members and loved ones to remotely co-manage the service while enjoying complete transparency and peace of mind -- with notifications, photos, and receipts documenting every visit.

With 10,000 Baby Boomers turning 65 every day and a projected 72 million seniors in the U.S. by 2030, the market for Family Concierge services is growing rapidly. An estimated 80% of seniors want to grow old in their homes, and it is often the adult children who are called upon when they first need help, at a staggering cost of 126 million missed work days per year. According to AARP, there are now 40 million family caregivers in the US. What’s more, about half of women age 40-60 in the US have an aging parent over 65 and are caring for their own children -- at the same time. As a result, they are sometimes referred to as the “Sandwich Generation.”

The heart of the service is the Company’s hyperlocal community of over 500 Family Concierge assistants, known as Envoys, who are all connected through a mobile/cloud platform. The Company receives thousands of applications from prospective Envoys each month, many of whom are stay-at-home moms seeking to earn flexible income doing meaningful work. Envoy accepts less than 5% of applicants after an intensive screening, background check, and on-boarding process. The service is protected by a $1M liability insurance policy through Lloyd’s of London.

Envoy was founded by veteran entrepreneur Justin Lin, who was most recently the founder of Mamapedia, a venture-backed online community of four million mothers. There he gained a deep understanding of the challenges that Sandwich Generation moms face. He and his family also experienced this stress personally.

“Ultimately what led me to start Envoy was the personal experience of losing my own mother to cancer. My father and brother still live on the East Coast, where I grew up. My brother was born with a learning disability, so he can’t drive, and with my dad getting up there in age I knew I’d need to get help for them soon,” Mr. Lin described, “There was no good place for us to turn.”

Family Concierge: A Huge, Whitespace Market Opportunity

Envoy has positioned its Family Concierge service to serve the huge, unmet need on the part of seniors and family caregivers for lightweight help early on in the aging journey. Envoy’s service is flexible so clients can have their Envoy start handling a few basic needs and add more services to their plan as their needs evolve. As a result, Envoy is able to jumpstart meaningful relationships with families and deepen them over time. Envoy service is available by subscription starting at less than $99/month.

In contrast, the existing home care market has been focused on the heavyweight end of the care spectrum. Conventional in-home care is designed for seniors who are dependent on the care for daily living -- for example to help with bathing or getting dressed -- with assistance needed several hours a day, many days a week, at a cost of $2,500 or more per month. Assisted living and nursing homes cost $4,000/month or more and require seniors to leave home and move into a facility.

$3M Seed Round from Top Seed-Stage Investors

Since emerging from beta late last year, the Company has been methodically expanding its Family Concierge service into new markets, proving its model can work anywhere in the country -- especially in the suburban neighborhoods where Boomers and Seniors predominantly live.

Envoy has raised $3M in seed financing from a stellar group of seed-stage venture capital firms led by SoftTech VC, along with Lowercase Capital, ENIAC Ventures, Structure Capital, Technicolor Ventures, and Vayner/RSE. Prominent angel investors include Douglas Feirstein (Founder of LiveOps, Hired), Raj Gajwani, Fabrice Grinda & Jose Marin of FJ Labs, Edward Park (COO of Athenahealth), Gary Swart (former CEO of ODesk), and Tyler Willis.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with the Envoy team. Justin is a part of a generation of veteran founders who previously used technology to solve problems they had in their 20’s. Now they are using technology and their experience to tackle a new set of huge problems all of us will face in the road ahead,” said Stephanie Palmeri of SoftTech VC, who joined the Company's Board of Directors, “No one has built a national brand focused on providing the kind of lightweight help that seniors and family caregivers need before they’re ready for full-blown in-home care or senior living, until now.”

Envoy’s newest market is San Antonio, Texas, which officially launched today. Additional markets where Envoy service is available include: in California - San Francisco, Oakland/East Bay, San Jose, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Orange County, Inland Empire, Ventura County, San Diego; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Las Vegas, Nevada; Denver, Colorado; Phoenix, Arizona.

The Company is headquartered in San Francisco.

For more information, visit www.helloenvoy.com. Images and background material for press are available at www.helloenvoy.com/press. Complete information about the screening process and background check for Envoys is available at www.helloenvoy.com/safety.

About Envoy

Envoy is the Family Concierge service for seniors and their families. Thousands have already turned to Envoy for lightweight help and support to stay in their homes longer and live life to the fullest, while deferring the need for in-home care and assisted living. Envoy is based in San Francisco and backed by prominent venture investors including SoftTech VC and Lowercase Capital. For more information, visit www.helloenvoy.com and follow us on Twitter @helloenvoy.

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Contacts

Envoy
Madison Satterfield, 415-851-4881
press@helloenvoy.com

Release Summary

Envoy (helloenvoy.com) announced today that its “Family Concierge” service for seniors and family caregivers is now live in 17 major markets across seven states.

Contacts

Envoy
Madison Satterfield, 415-851-4881
press@helloenvoy.com