Anvayaa, a Hyderabad-based start-up that offers a wide range of personalised services to senior citizens, is planning to expand its footprint to major cities by the end of the year besides entering tier-2 cities.

“Today we are in three cities and our plan is to be in all the metros by this year end,” founder Prashanth Reddy told BusinessLine during an interaction in the city last week.

After a long stint in the US, Reddy came back to Hyderabad to take care of his parents. Soon after, he received many requests from his friends and relatives living abroad to look after their aging parents once in a while. Sensing a business opportunity, Reddy founded Anvayaa in 2016.

Focus beyond healthcare

He was advised that the start-up should focus on healthcare. “But I wanted to delve further, so we conducted market research, where we spoke to 400 families to understand their needs. To our surprise, we found that only 30 per cent are healthcare needs. The major issues are loneliness and logistics management,” Reddy said.

Apart from crucial healthcare assistance and emergency care, the start-up offers personalised services to elders, such as taking them for a walk, accompanying them to a grocery store or a wedding, and attending to household repairs.

In addition to Hyderabad, Anvayaa has a presence in Bengaluru and Chennai. “Our immediate expansion will be in Mumbai, Pune and New Delhi, where we are building the necessary ecosystems,” he said.

Anvayaa was started with the founder’s own funds of about ₹60 lakh, and it currently supports 1,087 families across the three cities with 60 staff members, the majority of them being ‘care managers’. “In the next three-four years, we intend to cover about 55,000 families,” Reddy said, adding that funds of around ₹5 crore will be raised for this expansion.

Anvayaa has a web portal and an online app for senior care. If someone signs up for a package, a care manager is assigned and is available on call 24*7. The manager visits the family regularly. The service cost ranges from ₹50,000-1.5 lakh a year, with options to customise the package depending on the services required.

In addition to the parents of NRIs, Anvayaa offers services to senior citizens whose children may be in India but are busy working professionals. Currently, 30 per cent of the customers are domestic and the remaining business comes from NRIs.

“We are also exploring the B2B space. Many large corporates are in touch with us because they want to provide this service to the parents of employees,” Reddy added.

The company has over 250 partners onboard, and this includes hospitals, doctors, utility support services, such as plumbers and electricians, and pharmacies. It has tie-ups with a fleet of 2,800 ambulances across three cities. “We have handled 130 emergencies, mostly in the middle of the night,” Reddy said.

On future plans, Reddy said Anvayaa will move from reactive to proactive care for elderly citizens.

Displaying the prototype of a wrist-watch that will eventually be a smart device that customers can opt for, Reddy said it monitors and stores vital stats, alerting wearers to, say, a spike in blood pressure, and reminding them to take their medication. “The movements of senior citizens will also be captured, so, if a user falls down, Anvayaa’s call centre will be automatically alerted,” he added.

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