Cera, a UK-based home care services provider backed by retirement home operator Auriens, has received $17m in series A funding, E15.cz reported yesterday.
Guinness Asset Management’s EIS fund joined venture capital firm Yabeo, entrepreneurial organisation Kairos and several undisclosed, existing backers in the round, which included an undisclosed amount of debt financing.
Cera provides a range of in-home care services including on-demand care, allowing users to receive help within 30 minutes of booking, and elderly care that focuses on enabling people to remain in their property rather than moving into retirement homes.
The company’s offering also includes palliative care, dementia care, private nursing and live-in care.
The funding will go to an expansion across the UK beyond London, taking in Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, primarily through acquiring local homecare agencies. Cera is working towards a launch in Germany using the same strategy.
The money will also support further development of Cera’s artificial intelligence technologies including Martha, a chatbot assistant that tracks a patient’s health and aims to predict a deterioration in their condition.
Cera separately revealed in an email to its investors that it is working on a collaboration with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) to integrate data between its service and the NHS’s helpline.
The company is also working on integrating Amazon’s Alexa personal assistant into its offering, and has entered a partnership with media company Daily Mail to offer homecare to its readers.
Auriens invested $650,000 in Cera in August 2017, after Credo Ventures led a $1.8m seed round in April 2017 that included Kima Ventures. Assorted angel investors had supplied $1.6m in seed funding in November 2016.