Making a splash even before they launch in the UK, Gubbe has been in WIRED’s “The Hottest Startups in Europe” listing two years in a row. The startup claims to bring a revolutionary solution to the public health care crisis, nursing shortage and demographic aging, currently burdening societies. It all started when the Co-Founder Sandra Lounamaa began to seek a cure for her grandmother’s loneliness.

Firstly, the Finnish startup Gubbe made a revolutionary finding about the elderly: loneliness is directly followed by life-threatening diseases and injuries within the elderly. That’s why tackling loneliness is the key. In a few years Gubbe has completely taken over the Nordic elderly care in Finland and Sweden with its product that matches the youth and the elderly. Through the Gubbe subscription the senior is matched with a local young person, someone who they already have something in common with, and that same reliable Gubbe helper visits them at the same time every week or even every day. During the visits the senior gets help with house chores, technology, staying active or running errands. Described as the ‘feel-good tech company’ Gubbe has built an extensive software to give the relatives real-time updates about their senior.

Why is Gubbe going to the UK?

“The UK elderly care market is ripe for disruption, as traditional health care struggles with scattered needs, demographic aging and a nursing shortage. Relatives have never lived this far. There simply isn’t anyone in the market who offers reliable and customised home care like this,” CEO and Co-Founder of Gubbe, Sandra Lounamaa comments.

The startup has proven to improve the life quality of the elderly significantly, while giving their relatives peace of mind and a meaningful side job for young people.

“We are doing the same thing that Deliveroo did to the food industry. Revolutionising how the care is delivered, what the care looks like and responding to scattered customer needs that no one is currently addressing,” Lounamaa continues.

Backed by numerous VC investors Gubbe has collected over 5M GBP in funding. What got investors competing about them in the funding rounds, is that they don’t only operate in the consumer market. Gubbe offers their services as an employee benefit plan or a corporate responsibility project, making them a large operator across different business segments.

“To understand the size of these markets, global firms spend roughly $20 billion on corporate social responsibility per year and roughly the same amount goes to employee benefits. Our goal as a company is to generate 50M GBP revenue by 2024,” Lounamaa explains. 

Gubbe is currently operating in the Greater London area, and after a few months of pivoting there, they are planning to open up in all major cities in the UK.