Qida, passion for improving the lives of the senior population at home
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 1 in 6 people will be age 60 or older by 2030.
The relevance of longevity lies in our collective desire for a fulfilling and healthy life. Understanding the factors that contribute to long and healthy aging enables us to make informed choices, implement preventive measures, and create a society that supports individuals in living longer, fulfilling lives.
Longevity poses a very relevant question: where would we rather be? facing the need to be taken care of, would we choose to be at home?
The concept of aging in place has gained significant relevance in recent years as individuals increasingly express their desire to remain in their own homes and communities as they age. Aging in place refers to the ability of older adults to live independently and comfortably in their own homes, with access to necessary care and support services. This approach emphasizes the importance of preserving autonomy, maintaining social connections, and ensuring a high quality of life for seniors. The relevance of aging in place can be seen from various perspectives, including individual well-being, healthcare costs and community cohesion.
One of the primary reasons why aging in place is relevant is its positive impact on the overall well-being of older adults. Home is often associated with comfort, familiarity, and a sense of belonging. By staying in their own homes, seniors can maintain a sense of control over their lives, leading to enhanced mental and emotional well-being. They can continue living in a space filled with cherished memories and personal belongings, which contributes to their overall happiness and satisfaction.
Moreover, aging in place can help older adults maintain their social connections and engagement within their communities. This social interaction is crucial for combating loneliness and isolation, which are common issues among the elderly population.
From a healthcare perspective, aging in place has significant relevance as well. As the global population ages, the demand for healthcare services increases. By enabling older adults to remain at home, the burden on healthcare systems can be reduced. Additionally, advancements in tele-health and remote monitoring technologies further support aging in place. Seniors can take preventive actions to keep and improve their wellbeing; at the same time as healthcare professionals can remotely assess and provide care to seniors in their own homes. This not only enhances convenience but also reduces healthcare costs by minimizing hospitalizations and unnecessary institutional care.
The population gets older and they want to be at home for as long as possible. Over the aging process, senior population need a combination of prevention and care, with high quality human touch combined with technology.
This is exactly where Qida comes in. Qida focuses on what they call “the triple M” allowing More people to live More time with More quality of life in their own homes.
To talk Qida is to talk about a company full of passion for the elderly, for making sure each and every one of them can live longer, with better quality at home. This is their mantra, their reason for striving for excellence and their obsession for building a company that delivers on that promise. Oriol Fuertes, founder and CEO is an incredible leader that captivated us since the very early days when we met him in 2019, only a year after he had started Qida.
In the spirit of sharing, let us deep dive into the key reasons why we decided to invest in Qida and join the team on the mission to take care of seniors at home in a very unique way, the Qida way.
1. Understanding of the market
We first met Oriol in 2019. He had started Qida in 2018 and had a very clear vision on what he wanted to build. After having spent 10 years at Mckinsey & Co. working on health care projects and also having spent time working at the Ministry of Health in Catalonia, he knew his time had come to build a company to provide a link between the private and public sector and to help build a solution to the healthcare system.
Building elder care infrastructure in Europe will be paramount in the years to come. Over 1% of total European population will need home care support. Market size in Spain alone is an estimated €5bn, €25bn in Southern Europe, growing 10% annually. Oriol was facing a big challenge that he felt equipped to help solve. His vision was centered around the integration of technology into prevention and caregiving to facilitate aging at home for seniors.
Hospitals can no longer accommodate the increasing number of seniors requiring care. Oriol had experienced this first hand and he wished to create a company to bridge this gap, to keep more people at home longer and alleviate the strain on the healthcare system he knew so well.
Through the use of technology and an integration with the healthcare system, Qida would provide the necessary information for doctors to monitor patients and reduce the need for unnecessary hospital visits.
One key insight about this market is its high fragmentation. Most services are provided by local players with virtually no tech to optimize operations. Yet, the market is extremely large and growing.
In addition, the level of professionalization in this market is very low, with high variability in quality of care. This presents a big opportunity to build a company focused on the carer which can provide differentiated standard quality and high use of technology to standardize processes and hence, provide great quality.
Qida proved to us to have a very clear understanding of the Spanish and European landscape, a unique understanding to tap into the different market constituents to truly make an impact.
2. Unique approach
Getting into the weeds of this fascinating industry Oriol and the team showed us how they saw the opportunity to build a company that could reinvent the home care of the future. A company based on 5 key pillars.
- Person-centered. Dealing with the elderly requires a special fibre, a passion for delivering quality service for the patient as well as for their families. The patient is the core of the company. Providing the best prevention plan and delivering the best care for each individualized case is paramount. The patient is core but the carer is equally important. Qida selects their carers carefully (12% selection rate) and ensures they lift their social status: their recommended salaries are above market rates, they decide when and how much they work according to their needs and they become part of the Qida community. All of these instill a sense of empowerment, professionalism and community that is reflected in a very low carer attrition compared to market. Carers are an essential pillar to Qida’s success. Caring for the patient as well as for the carer.
- Tech-enabled. Technology is at the core of Qida, supporting its differentiated model of care. Its product is centered around four platforms (family/patient app to ensure communication of care plan with the patient and the family, care-giver app for carers to apply for job opportunities, manage services, receive training, engage with the community, internal system app to optimize staffing and personalized prevention and care plans and prescribers app to connect with third parties — health and social coordination). Through technology Qida reduces patient assessment time, improves the matching process and streamlines the full servicing from carer to patient and family. Qida sees technology as the clear differentiator and their investment in an integrated platform as one of its essential moats.
- Integration with health and social care system. Providing a solution to the senior population that can go beyond a B2C approach and become instrumental to health care providers, both private and public. Qida is uniquely positioned to play in the B2B space, having already made agreements with health care institutions as well as top insurance players and financial institutions.
- 1-stop shop for seniors. Qida’s ambition is to become the platform where seniors can find the best home care and access to the services they will need as they age at home. This is all aligned with Qida’s Triple M approach (More people, More time, More quality of life in the home).
- For good. Profitable + social impact purpose. Qida is a B-Corp company which has purposely chosen not to choose. The board tracks financial performance as well as social performance, both critical in measuring success. The team is set to build a global category leader while remaining true to their core values around delivering the best care.
3. Culture
At Kibo we value culture in companies because it is a strong predictor of long-term success, employee engagement, and talent attraction. A positive culture indicates a cohesive team, shared values, and effective communication, all of which contribute to the company’s growth potential and ability to navigate challenges.
Strong founders play a critical role in shaping the culture of a company. As visionary leaders, they set the tone, values, and behavior expectations that permeate throughout the organization. Their leadership style influence how employees engage with their work and with one another. Founders inspire and motivate employees, creating a shared sense of mission and commitment. They drive the culture through their decisions, communication, and actions, ensuring that it remains embedded in the company’s DNA as it evolves and grows.
Oriol is one of these unique founders who is shaping Qida’s strong sense of mission and purpose. The Qida Manifesto is a clear indication of what Qida stands for and what all employees abide to.
“We did not come here to offer just another service for seniors at home. We are here to transform an entire sector”
“We will not take short cuts on compromise on providing the best care to our patients”
“We choose not to choose. We will build our company in a scalable manner and at scale, combining profitability and social impact”
Oriol is surrounding himself with a stellar team, obsessed by building excellent technology, analyzing data to optimize processes and streamline every step of the value chain, from cost of acquisition to matching algorithms to provide the best personalized service with the best carer.
Qida’s numbers reflect this excellence: the team has overdelivered their business plan consistently since we met them, improving margins, unit economics while growing at SaaS-like rates.
One of the most incredible aspects of our job as venture capitalists is to meet founders and teams. Stellar teams are the single most important indicator of future success. Stellar teams are obsessed with excellence, with understanding their own metrics, competition, with building the best possible product and deliver outstanding quality. Couple this with the highest sense of purpose and we are looking at an incredible company set to fundamentally change how seniors live longer at home.
Proud to be sharing this journey together. 🎢
