By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH

Since it was founded in 2017, “family-on-demand” senior care startup Papa has raised a whopping $91M from a veritable who’s who of health innovation investors. How has this startup that matches “authentically nice people” up with seniors to “help out and hang out” convinced the likes of Tiger Global, Comcast Ventures, and Canaan Partners (and those are just the investors who chipped in for Papa’s $60M Series C round this April) to invest? And, probably more importantly, how has Papa won more than 40 health plans as clients (a number set to triple for 2022) EAGER to foot the bill to provide their members with the support of a Papa Pal?

Founder & CEO Andrew Parker walks us through the business model and what it will and won’t be providing in the near future. Companionship, house help, chatting, and grocery shopping all fall under the purview of a Pal – so does filling non-clinical gaps in care like making annual check-up appointments, picking up prescriptions, and providing telehealth tutorials. Andrew says Pals are like “ninjas for a health plan,” building relationships and trust one weekly visit at a time. With 240 million people that could get access to a Papa Pal either via a Medicare, Managed Medicaid, or even employer sponsored health plan (good employees with aging parents need caregivers…) the potential for growth is tremendous. Will the biz hit a ‘supply’ issue? How long do Pals stick around? As we work to combat loneliness, isolation, and a myriad of social determinants of health issues within a rapidly expanding senior population, find out what Andrew thinks will keep Pals around and the service sticky for seniors, their real families, and their health plans.