Max Parmentier is CEO of Birdie, an ‘agetech’ startup, backed by insurance giant AXA and incubated by Kamet Ventures, that aims to innovate the elderly care sector, support independent living at home, identify and prevent common medical issues before it requires hospitalisation, and tackle the issues of bed blocking in hospitals nationwide. He was inspired to develop a solution to the way in which elderly care is managed after witnessing the decline of his grandfather’s own health and well-being after he was put into a care home.
Previously, Parmentier founded and scaled up a global e-marketplace spin-off from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, funded and supported by Bill Gates and launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2016. This platform is now accessible to 140 countries and transacting $1bn worth of commodities.
Parmentier also worked at the UN and in small start-ups, and spent 5 years at McKinsey as manager supporting clients to design their strategies on climate change mitigation, deforestation and bio-energy.
Birdie positions itself as the world’s first holistic ‘care companion’ platform, and aims to support older adults to live healthy and independent lives within the comfort of their own home.
Through its digital apps and connected devices, Birdie optimises care in three ways: it allows care providers to ‘go paperless’ by digitising cumbersome and time-consuming admin and reporting; it facilitates communications and the sharing of information of an older adult's care between care professionals, families and other health practitioners; and it provides families with peace of mind – allowing them to follow their elderly loved one’s health and wellbeing 24/7 . Birdie is also developing state-of-the-art health analytics leveraging the data captured by care professionals and the remote sensors. Its algorithms track health conditions, predicts issues at risk of worsening and alerts the right people at the right time.
There are approximately 2 million frailer older adults requiring home care in the UK and 3.6 million family members acting as carers in a $15bn social care market that is set to double in 10 years (AgeUK, Public.io, King's Fund) . Domiciliary care can be up to 40% cheaper than care homes and yet the services provided at home are stymied by radical underfunding compounded by issues with care staff recruitment and retention.
Birdie endeavours to address this prominent human problem that has, for too long, been ignored to the point that it’s become the ‘new climate change’. The venture aims to help 1 million elderly people in 5 years.
Website: www.birdie.care
