Envoy, the “Family Concierge” Service for Seniors, Now Live in 17 Major Markets Across 7 States

San Francisco-based startup raises $3M seed round from SoftTech VC,
Lowercase Capital, and others

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Envoy (helloenvoy.com) announced today that its “Family Concierge”
service for seniors and family caregivers is now live in 17 major
markets across seven states. Thousands of seniors and their families
have already turned to Envoy for lightweight, meaningful help to stay in
their homes longer, to maintain their independence and to live life to
the fullest.

Envoy’s Family Concierge service is offered on a subscription basis and
is designed for seniors earlier in the aging journey who simply need
lightweight help and support:

  • Trusted Relationship. Clients enjoy a 1:1 trusted relationship
    with a dedicated Envoy assistant, who is carefully screened and
    resides in the local area.
  • Essential, Lightweight Help. Envoys can assist clients with
    essential errands such as grocery shopping and picking up
    prescriptions, or household tasks like washing dishes or changing a
    lightbulb.
  • Peace of Mind. Envoy’s Web and mobile apps make it simple for
    family members and loved ones to remotely co-manage the service while
    enjoying complete transparency and peace of mind — with
    notifications, photos, and receipts documenting every visit.

With 10,000 Baby Boomers turning 65 every day and a projected 72 million
seniors in the U.S. by 2030, the market for Family Concierge services is
growing rapidly. An estimated 80% of seniors want to grow old in their
homes, and it is often the adult children who are called upon when they
first need help, at a staggering cost of 126 million missed work days
per year. According to AARP, there are now 40 million family caregivers
in the US. What’s more, about half of women age 40-60 in the US have an
aging parent over 65 and are caring for their own children — at the
same time. As a result, they are sometimes referred to as the “Sandwich
Generation.”

The heart of the service is the Company’s hyperlocal community of over
500 Family Concierge assistants, known as Envoys, who are all connected
through a mobile/cloud platform. The Company receives thousands of
applications from prospective Envoys each month, many of whom are
stay-at-home moms seeking to earn flexible income doing meaningful work.
Envoy accepts less than 5% of applicants after an intensive screening,
background check, and on-boarding process. The service is protected by a
$1M liability insurance policy through Lloyd’s of London.

Envoy was founded by veteran entrepreneur Justin Lin, who was most
recently the founder of Mamapedia, a venture-backed online community of
four million mothers. There he gained a deep understanding of the
challenges that Sandwich Generation moms face. He and his family also
experienced this stress personally.

“Ultimately what led me to start Envoy was the personal experience of
losing my own mother to cancer. My father and brother still live on the
East Coast, where I grew up. My brother was born with a learning
disability, so he can’t drive, and with my dad getting up there in age I
knew I’d need to get help for them soon,” Mr. Lin described, “There was
no good place for us to turn.”

Family Concierge: A Huge, Whitespace Market Opportunity

Envoy has positioned its Family Concierge service to serve the huge,
unmet need on the part of seniors and family caregivers for lightweight
help early on in the aging journey. Envoy’s service is flexible so
clients can have their Envoy start handling a few basic needs and add
more services to their plan as their needs evolve. As a result, Envoy is
able to jumpstart meaningful relationships with families and deepen them
over time. Envoy service is available by subscription starting at less
than $99/month.

In contrast, the existing home care market has been focused on the
heavyweight end of the care spectrum. Conventional in-home care is
designed for seniors who are dependent on the care for daily living —
for example to help with bathing or getting dressed — with assistance
needed several hours a day, many days a week, at a cost of $2,500 or
more per month. Assisted living and nursing homes cost $4,000/month or
more and require seniors to leave home and move into a facility.

$3M Seed Round from Top Seed-Stage Investors

Since emerging from beta late last year, the Company has been
methodically expanding its Family Concierge service into new markets,
proving its model can work anywhere in the country — especially in the
suburban neighborhoods where Boomers and Seniors predominantly live.

Envoy has raised $3M in seed financing from a stellar group of
seed-stage venture capital firms led by SoftTech VC, along with
Lowercase Capital, ENIAC Ventures, Structure Capital, Technicolor
Ventures, and Vayner/RSE. Prominent angel investors include Douglas
Feirstein (Founder of LiveOps, Hired), Raj Gajwani, Fabrice Grinda &
Jose Marin of FJ Labs, Edward Park (COO of Athenahealth), Gary Swart
(former CEO of ODesk), and Tyler Willis.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with the Envoy team. Justin is
a part of a generation of veteran founders who previously used
technology to solve problems they had in their 20’s. Now they are using
technology and their experience to tackle a new set of huge problems all
of us will face in the road ahead,” said Stephanie Palmeri of SoftTech
VC, who joined the Company’s Board of Directors, “No one has built a
national brand focused on providing the kind of lightweight help that
seniors and family caregivers need before they’re ready for full-blown
in-home care or senior living, until now.”

Envoy’s newest market is San Antonio, Texas, which officially launched
today. Additional markets where Envoy service is available include: in
California – San Francisco, Oakland/East Bay, San Jose, Sacramento,
Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Orange County, Inland Empire,
Ventura County, San Diego; Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Las
Vegas, Nevada; Denver, Colorado; Phoenix, Arizona.

The Company is headquartered in San Francisco.

For more information, visit www.helloenvoy.com.
Images and background material for press are available at www.helloenvoy.com/press.
Complete information about the screening process and background check
for Envoys is available at www.helloenvoy.com/safety.

About Envoy

Envoy is the Family Concierge service for seniors and their families.
Thousands have already turned to Envoy for lightweight help and support
to stay in their homes longer and live life to the fullest, while
deferring the need for in-home care and assisted living. Envoy is based
in San Francisco and backed by prominent venture investors including
SoftTech VC and Lowercase Capital. For more information, visit www.helloenvoy.com
and follow us on Twitter @helloenvoy.

For Further Reading:

Contacts

Envoy
Madison Satterfield, 415-851-4881
press@helloenvoy.com

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