Caring raises $30 million in Series B funding

Caring Co., a South Korean startup offering senior care services, succeeded in raising 40 billion won ($30 million) in a series B funding round, elevating its total funding to hit the largest among local senior care service startups, it announced on Monday.

Korea Development Bank, IMM Investment Corp. and Eugene Asset Management have joined the latest funding round for Caring.

Its existing investors SV Investment Corp., LB Investment Inc., Hyundai Investment Partners Co., Quantum Ventures Korea and ARK Impact Asset Management also joined the Series B funding round, according to the company.

Combined with the previous funding, Caring has raised a total of 75 billion won, the biggest funding amount for a Korean senior care service startup, the company said.

With the new proceeds, the startup said it will build infrastructure for localized, government-funded senior care services ranging from caregiver center operations to in-home care, nursing and bathing services.

Founded in 2019, Caring manages about 42,000 home care coordinators, commanding the biggest share in the Korean senior care market with its cumulative number of users reaching about 12,000.

It operates 14 local care centers and in-home care agencies, respectively. It also runs four centers where caregiving coordinators receive training as well as two shops that sell nursing equipment.

It plans to expand its local operations including care centers to 100 from the current 34.

BOOMING SENIOR CARE MARKET 

Korea’s senior care market is set to burgeon as the country is fast aging.

The number of people aged 65 or over in Asia’s fourth-largest economy is expected to break 10 million this year, with the country to enter an era in which 20% of the population is a senior citizen, Statistics Korea projected in February last year.  

It forecasts that the population of people aged 65 or older will hit 10,008,326 in 2024, up 5.4% from 9,499,933 in 2023. The elderly population broke 9 million for the first time in history with 9,018,412 in 2022.

But it projected the population of those aged 14 or younger will shrink from 6,143,634 in 2021 to 5,686,017 in 2023 and 5,462,580 in 2024.

At the current pace, South Korea is expected to become the world’s most-aged country with half of its population aged 65 or older by 2070, government data showed.  

In-home care is care provided for the elderly at their own homes with more private options.

In line with the growing number of senior citizens, the growing number of families of the elderly are seeking various senior care services including in-home care services as well as nursing homes and senior care facilities.

Bosalpim is another senior care service startup popular in Korea. It garnered an undisclosed amount of funds in a pre-series A round in December 2022 from Kakao Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Smilegate Investment, and Strong Ventures.

Korea’s big conglomerates are also expediting their advance into the senior market in general.

Lotte Group is building a luxury residential town for retirees in Seoul with a plan to complete it by 2025.

Besides Lotte, Samsung Life Insurance's public welfare foundation runs a premium senior community in Youngin near Seoul.

Write to Eun-Yi Ko at koko@hankyung.com

Sookyung Seo edited this article.