UK start-up Cera is one of Europe’s fastest-growing businesses with $120m in revenue.

Cera is a technology-enabled home care provider that uses digital and data analytics to improve elderly care services. With purpose-built machine learning algorithms for elderly care, Cera’s technology is able to predict health deteriorations before they occur.

Longevity.Technology: As the population ages, the sector faces increasing levels of economic, logistic and emotional strain. Innovation is needed to tackle these pressures and Cera’s continued success story makes encouraging reading. Digitised healthcare services that leverage cutting edge tech to provide in-home care are transforming the sector, and Cera has already grown to become one of the largest care providers in Europe.

Cera launched in 2016, and has now expanded across the UK, delivering over 25,000 care visits a day, with 5,000 employees nationwide. The company has also developed partnerships with organisations such as the NHS, Uber, Deliveroo and IBM. Earlier this year Cera was selected as the UK Government Department for Health and Social Care’s recruitment technology partner – making its digital recruitment and training platform available to more than 24,000 care companies nationwide.

This week Cera, which is is already EBITDA positive, confirmed it has reached $120 million revenues (run-rate) in less than four years, and announced the creation of 5,000 new jobs nationwide as it seeks to double its headcount.

The firm, which was co-founded by its CEO Dr Ben Maruthappu, has raised more than $100 million in debt and equity funding to support its rapid expansion; Cera aims to accelerate its current growth rate and is forecasting sales to more than double by 2022.

Using digital and data analytics technologies to monitor the health of users, Cera enables families and medical professionals to track wellbeing and any changes in condition in real-time. A strength of digitised healthcare is that health concerns can be identified more quickly and treatment can sometimes be agreed without the need for face-to-face appointments.

“We couldn’t be prouder of our achievements to date… Regardless of the challenges we’ve faced, our vision for the business and our technology has always remained the same; to transform care for the better.”

“We couldn’t be prouder of our achievements to date, and how far we’ve come in such a short space of time,” said Dr Ben Maruthappu MBE, CEO of Cera Care. “Regardless of the challenges we’ve faced, our vision for the business and our technology has always remained the same; to transform care for the better, to the benefit of all.

“The past year has shone a spotlight on historic problems in the sector and reaffirmed just how important care is for society as a whole. Whilst the pandemic has presented us with immense challenges, it has also offered us the chance to accelerate transformation of the sector. Through our technology and continued expansion across the UK, we’ve been able to care for older and vulnerable people, support NHS services and boost the economy by employing thousands of new carers.”

As lifespans lengthen and the number of senior years lived alone increases, improving independent living and healthtech is an investment that makes economic sense for governments. The Agetech sector is ripe for investment and the industry is already slated to double to $2 trillion. As digital ecosystems continue to embed in our society and Internet of Things and digital co-operation join up Longevity prevention, therapy and wellness, extending lifespan could be as straightforward as booking an Uber.
Images courtesy of Cera and congerdesign / Pixabay