Sage: Bringing caregiving into the 21st century

Whether you like it or not, everyone ages. And everyone will need to be cared for as they age.

Most people reading this post don’t need care themselves — at least not yet. But you’ve likely seen grandparents or parents age and experienced some of the challenges associated with making sure they get the best possible care.

Caregiving is difficult, time-intensive work, made more difficult by outdated technology. In many cases, rooms in elder care communities have call bells and pull cords that residents use to let caregivers know they need something. It’s like transmitting information using tin cans and string instead of a smartphone and a cellular network.

Is this really how any of us want our aging loved ones to notify someone they are in need of assistance?  Through this analog system, caregivers have no idea what residents are calling about or how frequently they’re calling. There’s no way to differentiate and thus triage calls, so residents often have to wait 20-30 minutes to get help — which can be dangerous in an emergency. And because many facilities still use paper logs, record keeping often leaves gaps in information to share with families.

It’s a big problem — one that will only get larger as the over-75 population is projected to grow much faster than the number of people who care for them. That’s why we’re leading the $35M Series B for Sage.

A growing market, and a chance to transform a brick-and-mortar industry

We are fortunate to live in a world where life expectancy, other than during the pandemic, has continuously increased. However, this also means that by 2030, the number of older adults living in senior living operations is predicted to more than double from 3.85 million to 8 million, while the number of caregivers for elderly people is only expected to tick up slightly, from 2.29 million to 2.35 million. Simple math tells you that the ratio of residents to caregivers will double from 1.7 to 3.4 over that same period, a ramp that will be unsustainable without technology.

Bridging that gap - with better technology, better data, better caregiver support, plus expansion to more senior living communities - is a multi-billion-dollar market opportunity, which is why Sage’s roadmap includes expanding from “unplanned care”—when something unexpected happens and residents need help—to “planned care” and integrating leading fall detection partners into the platform. Eventually, they’ll also support in-home care, providing support at every step of the aging journey.

Sage’s founders, Raj, Ellen and Matt, bring deep experience in hardware and software. They founded Sage because they’ve each experienced what it’s like to have a loved one in a senior living facility. We’ve gotten to know them well over the last several months and are impressed by their understanding of the market and vision for improving the caregiving experience for everyone involved.

At IVP, we look for markets with secular tailwinds; in this case, an aging population with longer life expectancies. But we also look for technology that can transform brick-and-mortar businesses—think Toast for restaurants, Mindbody for the wellness industry and Deputy for businesses looking to manage employee schedules.

Better technology for an industry that desperately needs it

Sage is an integrated platform that serves as the system of record for senior living operations. Sage installs sensors in each resident’s room and then gives caregivers, nurses and management staff an easy-to-use app that helps them manage their day-to-day operations.

When a resident rings a Sage sensor, the call is automatically assigned to a caregiver, who then goes to the resident’s room equipped with a detailed personal history of a resident’s needs and takes care of whatever task needs to be done. Immediately afterward, they log the task they completed — logging accurate and complete data right away, rather than at the end of a shift, when they’re extremely tired.

It’s a way to make life better for each of the constituents in elder care:

• Residents get faster care, with average response times cut by more than 60% and a higher quality of life.
• Caregivers get a better tool and more support, leading to more satisfaction and less turnover in a notoriously demanding industry.
• Management can reward high-performing staff, identify low performers, reduce employee churn and charge individual residents based on the amount of care they actually need.
• Families get more information about the types of requests their loved ones are making and how quickly staff are responding.

By using modern, digital technology to bring all four elder care constituents together, Sage is in a unique position to help make a difficult stage of life a little easier for millions of people and their families. This is a solution that will touch all of our lives, first as our loved ones age and eventually when each of us reach that point as well.