Haatch Ventures invests ‘smart money’ into early-stage digital and technology companies, and recently led a CareLineLive investment round. We spoke to Simon Penson, Partner at Haatch Ventures, to discuss the investment, the healthcare and technology landscape, and his predictions for the future of the homecare market.
Tell us about Haatch Ventures. Why do you focus on investing in tech and digital startups?
We created a fund that was founder friendly and very much hands-on. But more importantly, we give the founders time and share knowledge. By sharing experiences and learnings, we can help founders to avoid the same mistakes we made (or might have made) when we were in the same position.
Every partner at Haatch Ventures has built and sold a company at least once, usually more than once. Because of this, we’ve gone through the process of building companies and have an abundance of learnings from our experiences.
When it comes to the types of digital and tech businesses we invest in, we’re sector-agnostic, but we look for the digital disruptors that are pioneering their markets and are utilising brilliant technology and software. In particular, we’re attracted to companies with a really strong founding team and a big vision.
Ultimately, we back digital and tech businesses that have established themselves but that we can also help with a guiding set of hands. We want to help them on their journey.
How did you discover CareLineLine?
At Haatch we receive around 1,000 inbound opportunities and pitches a year, but the number we invest in is only a fraction of that. When Josh and the CareLineLive team were introduced to us, we really liked what we saw.
We spend our days talking to awesome entrepreneurs and companies, and CareLineLive stood out from the crowd.
What are your key reasons for you investing in CareLineLive?
There are a lot of things we look into when we invest in companies, including a strong founding team, the idea/vision, funding to date, and sector size. CareLineLive ticked a lot of those boxes. It has a strong team and vision for an early stage business, and is in a brilliant position to scale quickly.
CareLineLive is in a really exciting and opportunistic space, and homecare is something that is important to us at both a societal level and at a personal level. The volume and demand for homecare is increasing exponentially, so it’s a really important mission.
What market opportunities do you see for CareLineLive moving forward?
COVID-19 has undoubtedly accelerated the need for homecare, and the digital uptake in healthcare presents many opportunities. Josh and the team have a really solid platform and a great understanding of the market. There’s also the opportunity for it to grow into something much bigger, with IoT-enabled homes and 5G helping the homecare market.
Having the ability to look at a screen and understand how your elderly or vulnerable relatives are doing will revolutionise the homecare space. By adding in IoT-enabled technology, you will also be able to see whether your family member has turned off their oven or if they’re sat watching TV. There are unlimited opportunities, so we’re really excited.
