Papa raises $10 million Series A
Papa , a company committed to helping seniors throughout their aging journey by providing “Grandkids on Demand,” has announced the completion of a $10 million Series A round led by Canaan, with additional investment from Pivotal Ventures, an investment and incubation company created by Melinda Gates. Initialized Capital, Y Combinator, and Sound Ventures re-invested in the round.
In addition, Papa announced partnerships with multiple large health insurance plans, including Humana, Aetna, Priority Health and Alignment Healthcare. Papa will use the proceeds from the financing to expand its services to a broader population of older adults, via partnerships with additional insurance plans and employee benefit providers. Papa will also expand its service footprint in 2020 to 25 states to address demand from new health plan commitments. As part of the financing, Canaan principal Byron Ling will join the company’s board.
Papa was founded in 2016 to connect college and nursing students, known as “Papa Pals,” to older adults who need assistance with transportation, house chores, technology lessons, and other services. By providing companionship to seniors who lack access to social networks, Papa seeks to curb social isolation and loneliness, which researchers have shown has the same impact on health as smoking 15 cigarettes per day.
“Our mission at Papa is to end the loneliness epidemic among seniors by connecting two distinct generations – energetic, enthusiastic college students, and older adults in need of companionship and assistance. The idea behind Papa came from an experience my family had helping my aging grandfather, who we called Papa. We hired a college student to assist him and provide social interaction. Since then, we have grown rapidly, filling a massive void in care for seniors who want to live independently and need some support, which previously had no obvious solution. The Series A funding and our partnerships with insurance providers will allow us to expand and support more older adults with a positive experience.” – Andrew Parker, Papa’s founder and chief executive officer.
Papa is currently available in 14 states, including Ark., Calif., Fla., GA., Ill., Kan., Ky., La., Mich., Miss., Mo., Pa., S.C., and Texas, and will expand to a total of 25 states in 2020. By partnering with Humana, Aetna, Priority Health and Alignment Healthcare, Papa services available to members can include companionship, non-emergency transportation to medical appointments and food shopping, basic house help, and general organizational assistance.
In addition to its insurance plan partners, Papa also announced a partnership with New Benefits, an employee benefits provider. Through the partnership, employees can enroll in Papa and use the service to provide care to the older adults in their families.
