ResHub
Founded by: Seán McLoughlin and Neil Hosey in 2020
Staff: 15
Funding: €1.8 million
ResHub, an Irish software business focused on older adults, is targeting expansion in the US after winning its first clients there earlier this year. The business plans to raise €5 million in its next funding round, which should take place over the next year, to support its growth. ResHub expects to add another 15 staff within the next 12 months.
“It’s the biggest market and further along the curve with the technology. We have just started implementation on our first US customer,” Seán McLoughlin, co-founder of ResHub, told the Business Post.
“It’s very exciting. Culturally in the US, people make more progressive retirement decisions so there’s a strong market based around lifestyle and choices, which we can provide.”
ResHub is a software platform used to help with senior living, whether that’s at home, in assisted living or in a nursing home. The business was started in 2020 by McLoughlin and Neil Hosey. Its 15 staff all work fully remotely and the business has raised €1.8 million to date.
“The platform connects the resident with staff, family and services. There are parts to the application for everyone involved based on peer-reviewed academic research into optimal ageing and house design technology,” McLoughlin told the Business Post.
“We want to improve safety and wellness as well as social connections for older adults while also giving them a choice in what they do.”
McLoughlin and Hosey had experience of working together in technology for older adults prior to setting up ResHub. They decided to create the business as they enjoyed the purposeful nature of healthtech.
“Doing something that has a societal impact was a motivating factor. Having been involved in research around optimal ageing, it resonated with me because it’s not just about older adults. It affects all of us, the determining factors in health and looking at ways to improve that for people in an underserved cohort of people,” McLoughlin said.
“Our first commercial contract was signed in Australia in 2020 with Vacenti Aged Care. Since then we’ve signed additional customers in the UK and Ireland.”
The business is part of the high potential start-up unit (HPSU) in Enterprise Ireland. McLoughlin said the agency has been of significant help to ResHub.
“We engaged with them last year. The HPSU has been great, not just from an investment perspective but also being plugged into market executives around the world,” he said.
“We’ve been talking to them to understand the opportunities they can promote for us and the connections they have in the markets.”
While the business operates on a fully remote basis, ResHub is keen to have staff closer to its customers in its growth markets.
“Our product and innovation is built [out] of Ireland. The growth in each of our regions will be around sales and marketing along with onboarding customers. We’ve made sales hires in the US to make sure our first customers are onboarded well there,” McLoughlin said.
“What we do next with our products is coming from customer feedback. We’ll base what we do around their needs.”