Innovation in healthcare tech continues to accelerate in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, we are observing continued interest and investment in the elder care and home services segment with a stream of fresh venture capital investment.

A trend that has become known over the past 10 years as “aging in place,” it comes at a time when more of the population enters retirement and seniors are more interested in adapting in their living space vs. seeking alternative arrangements. Add social distancing and remote care to the mix, and this has further precipitated a shift in direct care work on the part of agencies, healthcare systems and networks to adapt in kind to the demand of in-home and remote care through telehealth.

Patient Needs Drive Innovation and Investment

While felt more acutely due to the pandemic, innovation to drive simplicity in this space for the patient has by and large fueled the investment thus far. Technology’s ability to meet patient-provider expectations when it comes to delivering quality care has increased. Now is a time when healthcare brands targeting this aging demographic simultaneously need to invest in the right content strategy and media approach that help marketing initiatives resonate with their audiences: VC portfolio managers, health systems, provider networks and/or individuals themselves.

Read a venture capitalist’s take on the future of the healthcare industry.

According to a recent article in Crunchbase, venture and seed funding in two main areas – elder care and home healthcare – peaked in 2018 at $490M. As of September 25, $368M was invested in 40 companies in 2020 alone, excluding funding data for about 85 additional companies due to being too early stage. Brands such as Papa, Carewell and CareAcademy reflect this momentum, and Crunchbase said it best: “Startups offering in-home services are working on approaches for how to be the last-mile for services in the home and how to be the first-mile to the home.”

“As of September 25, $368M was invested in 40 [elder care and home healthcare] companies in 2020 alone, excluding funding data for about 85 additional companies due to being too early stage.”

Portfolio leaders from the likes of P&G Ventures, Primetime Partners and Rock Health agree that the need for home care is critical when looking at the numbers alone. With the size of the aging population, the infrastructure to support this anticipated level of influx in care services simply will not be able to manage it without a hybrid model – facility-based and at-home. What’s more, we are talking about a segment of the population that is more comfortable and savvier with technology to drive their care than previous generations.

Bring next level awareness to your growing healthcare brand by learning more about our NXT Stage Approach.

Communicating Value Through Integrated Marketing and PR Strategy

As VC groups incubate ideas and solutions in caregiving, and as health plans begin to take notice, now is the time for healthcare brands – from startups to established companies – to double down on their brand and product marketing strategies. Awareness through an earned media and content strategy will help brands build trust with portfolio managers and ultimately promote their end value to the patient. According to Chetan Parekh, senior brand director and innovation portfolio leader at P&G Ventures: “Capital is aplenty, but startups need the expertise on branding, insights, product design, the actual product development, supply chain and manufacturing processes that would allow the idea to flourish and convert to something big.”

It’s all about crafting unique campaigns that captivate your target audiences and drive them to measurable actions. Our integrated marketing and PR framework for emerging growth brands is a great place to start. In it, we’ve taken the time to chat with leading VCs about how they are approaching growth opportunities within their portfolios – hear what they have to say. Additionally, our recently launched content marketing framework will help you build a content strategy with the right digital foundation.

Download the 5-Step Framework for tips around how to up-level your content marketing strategy.

As a health tech brand concentrating on the emerging market opportunity in elder care services and direct caregiving, building consideration and intent for your company and your tech application runs parallel with product development and competitive positioning. Whether you are at the idea stage, implementation, adoption, or poised to scale, an integrated marketing and PR approach that doubles down on thought leadership, subject matter expertise and product differentiation will help support awareness in your marketing funnels and attract the capital investment needed to scale your solution from idea to reality.

Want more insights around how to keep up with the pace of the digital health transformation? Download our healthcare eBook below.