The United States is experiencing a significant increase in its elderly population — 80 million over age 65 by 2040 — and 90% of these baby boomers prefer to age at home, not in a nursing home.
Further reading: The future of aging relies on purposeful software innovation
Unfortunately, our healthcare system and social support fabric are not adequately equipped to support this shift. Caregiver burnout is expected to rise, with 42 million Americans currently caring for an elderly parent, spouse, or other individual — a number projected to grow by nearly 50% by 2040. Private payers have not kept pace with the increasing demand. The fragmented provider networks for non-medical aging-in-place services, long-term care insurance (LTCI), and Medicare Advantage have struggled to create a cohesive national network. These outdated systems result in poor visibility in care quality for those wishing to age in place.
Non-clinical home care agencies are the buttress to the dam, providing support and stability and enabling elders to safely stay home. From personalized care plans, assistance with daily activities, or companionship, non-clinical home care agencies can be a great combination of SMB resourcefulness, hard work, and patient empathy. The results? Seniors maintain independence, which means dignity and quality years of life. They also happen to stay out of hospitals at a higher rate — better for health and societal cost.
However, these agencies are not designed to scale without compromising service qualities. Supporting hourly caregivers is expensive, made even more difficult by the shortage of qualified professionals, significant regulations, fragmented communications, and data sharing with providers and payers.
If only there were technology and data science to continuously and accurately assess elders 24/7, allowing home care agencies to enhance their responsiveness while preserving consent, privacy, and dignity…
Enter Sensi.ai.
Sensi helps seniors live independently for longer, driving revenue for home care agencies, and reducing the burden on payers and providers. The company’s audio-based NLP- and LLM-based models sell into non-clinical home care agencies and monitor elderly patients at home to identify emergencies and care needs in real time, resulting in reduced hospitalizations. In addition to additional revenue streams and greater caregiver efficiency, Sensi also enables home care agency customers to drive higher senior client retention and competitive differentiation between other agencies.
Sensi’s solution comes in three parts:
- Hardware: Sensi’s in-home pods use audio technology to detect care anomalies. Setup is a simple plug and play, frequently taking fewer than five minutes (including the unboxing).
- Software: Verticalized NLP and LLM models trained on rich, clinician-labeled data process sounds to identify emergencies and care needs (falls, UTIS, cardiac events, mental distress) tailored to each patient, with high accuracy.
- Care Co-pilot: Sensi offers real-time alerts with a patient and workforce management platform for care agencies, helping management deploy services at the right time depending on urgency and care needs.
Sensi first came on Insight’s radar back in 2020. We recognized the company’s innovative audio offering, which was well-positioned to serve this market with its balance between accuracy and privacy. We highlighted their process in our blog in 2023, and continue to be impressed by Sensi’s growth, spearheaded by a strong management team.
Sensi’s home care agency customers are impressed, too:
- “We want to keep clients in their home as long as possible, and with Sensi, we can act fast when things go wrong to minimize risk of hospitalization.”
- “Sensi helps you know when your clients need you most, allowing you to best allocate caregivers across clients in a way that increases efficiencies and quality of care.”
- “Sensi is helping us drive new business, since we can now offer Sensi to clients who do not use our caregivers before but want an extra level of assurance.”
- Since working with Sensi, we are getting a lot more interest from nursing homes and hospitals for referrals given the technological edge Sensi provides.”
We are excited to be co-leading Sensi’s $31M Series B with Zeev Ventures!
If you’re a non-medical home care agency looking to elevate your quality of care, you can learn more about Sensi at https://www.sensi.ai and get a demo. You can also reach out directly to the Insight Team (sbarclay@insightpartners.com, alundin@insightpartners.com, smohammadzadeh@insightpartners.com).
