ImpactAlpha, June 11 – Online caregiver-training platform CareAcademy raised $9.5 million in a round led by Impact America Fund. CareAcademy enhances and scales professional development in the booming home-care economy, which is forecast to grow at 8% a year through 2027.
Co-founded by Helen Adeosun and Madhuri Reddy is in 2016, the company has certified over 100,000 caregivers through its catalogue of online courses.
“Home-care workers have always been essential workers,” Adeosun told ImpactAlpha. “We’re not training them for new skills, we’re enhancing skills that people are already doing.”
Spectrum of companies, capital and creatives aim for justice
When COVID struck, the company moved quickly to set up an online class that has helped prepare tens of thousands of home-health aides, non-medical caregivers, and personal care aides to continue to deliver frontline care for the elderly through a pandemic.
“CareAcademy is being built around the value of the direct care worker,” Impact America’s Kesha Cash said at Spectrum Virtual this week. The company’s courses cut training costs for home-care agencies and help caregivers deliver better services. That helps low-wage workers gain in-demand skills, advance in their careers and increase their incomes.
Rethink Impact, ReThink Education, Revolution Rise of the Rest, Wanxiang America Healthcare Investments, Techstars Ventures, Strada and ECMC Group also joined the round. Employment Technology Fund and Backstage Capital are among earlier investors. Impact America’s Kesha Cash and Dr. Ivor Horn, formerly of Accolade Health, joined CareAcademy’s board.
CareAcademy raises $9.5 million to upskill a generation of caregivers
The fresh funding brings total fundraising to more than $13 million. The cofounders have set their sights on upskilling and reskilling one million Americans for healthcare work.
Says Adeosun, “Our opportunity as a company is to recognize those skills, amplify those skills, and build on top of that, skills that the market then appreciates.”