London-based healthtech startup Nila has successfully raised $2.4 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round led by LocalGlobe, with additional backing from Redbus Ventures and angel investors affiliated with Revolut, Wise, and Nala. The company aims to transform the way immigrants manage senior care for elderly relatives across borders by deploying an AI-driven platform that addresses the unique challenges of cross-border caregiving.
Founded less than a year ago by CEO Anthony Jacob, who previously specialised in remittance payments at Taptap Send, Nila emerged from Founders Factory’s Aviva fintech venture studio. Jacob's inspiration for the startup was deeply personal: the difficulties he faced coordinating care for his ageing parents in Sri Lanka during the COVID-19 pandemic while living abroad. He noted to Tech Funding News, “We realised millions of immigrants face the same challenge, and there was no trusted, tech-enabled solution bridging that gap.”
The startup’s AI-powered platform is designed to streamline complex caregiving logistics for families separated by distance. This includes managing healthcare appointments, medication tracking, home visits, and seamless payments through proprietary cross-border financial systems. Nila also operates a network of "Nila Certified" carers who undergo specialised geriatric training and safeguarding certification, ensuring trustworthy and quality eldercare locally across key Indian cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, and Kolkata.
Since its launch, Nila has facilitated over 3,000 care requests across more than ten Indian cities, notably maintaining zero customer churn—an indicator of customer satisfaction and service reliability. The startup currently targets immigrants in the UK and US, who pay approximately $100 per month for ongoing health and companionship support for loved ones through local healthcare and telehealth partnerships.
Nila’s mission addresses a pressing demographic trend: a growing elderly population leading to greater dependency on younger family members, many of whom reside abroad pursuing careers. Jacob emphasised the importance of technology that keeps families informed and in control despite geographical separation, describing Nila as a “bridge” to high-quality cross-border eldercare that is efficient, transparent, and personalised.
Julia Hawkins, partner at LocalGlobe, highlighted the emotional and financial stress immigrants endure when caring for relatives at a distance, praising Nila’s ability to tackle these challenges with technology that combines trusted carers, payment processing, and real-time visibility into care. While there are eldercare competitors such as Papa, Homage, and Meiko, Nila differentiates itself by focusing specifically on immigrants’ needs, including the complexities of cross-border payment systems and certified caregiving in emerging markets.
Looking ahead, Nila plans rapid expansion throughout metropolitan India over the next 12 to 18 months, alongside entry into broader Asian markets like the Philippines. This strategy taps into the $130 billion global remittance flow, a substantial share of which is dedicated to elderly healthcare. Jacob expressed ambitious goals to establish Nila as the default eldercare platform for global diaspora families, deepening its technological capabilities and scaling operations over the next three years.
While the senior care and eldertech sector has seen increased investment from companies targeting elderly care innovations, Nila’s focus on international families and cross-border caregiving offers a unique value proposition. The startup’s combination of AI-driven coordination, certified local carers, and financial technology positions it to meet the emerging needs of a growing immigrant population balancing multiple countries’ healthcare environments.
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Source: Noah Wire Services