Immigrants typically spend upwards of eight hours a week and more than $5,000 annually coordinating and funding care for elderly relatives from afar, entailing frequent costly trips home. London-based healthtech startup Nila aims to alleviate this burden by offering a frictionless, transparent, and technology-enabled way to manage senior care remotely.
Today, Nila has closed an oversubscribed $2.4 million pre-seed funding round led by LocalGlobe, with backing from Redbus Ventures and angel investors connected to Revolut, Wise, and Nala.
The capital will fuel the growth of Nila’s AI-driven platform designed to help immigrants manage healthcare and caregiving needs for elderly relatives overseas, with an initial focus on India and plans to expand across Asia, including the Philippines.
Since launch, Nila has facilitated over 3,000 care requests in more than 10 Indian cities, such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune, and Kolkata, notably maintaining zero customer churn.
Managing senior care from afar
Founded less than a year ago by CEO Anthony Jacob, a remittance payments expert formerly at Taptap Send, Nila emerged from Founders Factory’s Aviva fintech venture studio. Jacob’s vision was shaped by personal difficulties coordinating care for his elderly parents in Sri Lanka during the pandemic.
Jacob told TFN, “It started from a deeply personal place, seeing how difficult it was for my sister and me to coordinate care for our parents during COVID while living in a different country from them. We realised millions of immigrants face the same challenge, and there was no trusted, tech-enabled solution bridging that gap.”
He added, “We’re proud to share that over 70% of our team identify as a minority or an immigrant. Our distributed team spans the UK, the US and multiple Indian cities, reflecting both our global customer base and local care delivery.”
Behind Nila’s AI-powered care coordination platform
At the heart of Nila’s solution is an AI-powered care coordination platform combined with proprietary cross-border payment systems and a network of “Nila Certified” carers. These in-house certified professionals undergo specialised training in geriatric care and safeguarding, enabling them to provide end-to-end services, including managing home visits, medication tracking, medical appointments, and seamless payment for medical expenses on behalf of families abroad.
Jacob said, “We face an ageing population of a huge proportion. The knock-on effect is increased elder dependency on younger generations, often young professionals exploring careers abroad who have to handle care arrangements remotely.
At Nila, we are the bridge to that cross-border high-quality care that is smarter, more efficient and keeps families far away informed of every step. Today’s fundraiser is an exciting opportunity to take the next step in Nila’s growth – delivering personalised senior care at scale.”
Julia Hawkins, partner at LocalGlobe, added, “Anyone living abroad will know how stressful, worrying and costly it is to care for loved ones from afar. Nila is fundamentally transforming that experience by tackling the toughest challenges – from finding trusted carers to managing clunky payments and getting real visibility into day-to-day care. Nila can’t replace being there in person, but it’s already proving that it’s the next best thing: giving families peace of mind as they navigate complex health needs and responsibilities.”
While the senior care and eldertech market includes competitors like Papa, Homage, and Meiko, Nila stands out with its focus on immigrants’ unique challenges, particularly cross-border payments and caregiver certification in emerging markets.
Customers in the UK and US pay around $100 a month, giving their loved ones continuous support and companionship through local health and telehealth partnerships.
What’s next?
With rapid expansion planned in Indian metros over the next 12 to 18 months and broader Asian market entry on the horizon, Nila is poised to tap into the $130 billion global remittance flow, a significant portion spent on healthcare for elderly family members.
Jacob concluded, “We aim to become the most trusted eldercare platform for global families, expanding across India and into new diaspora markets in the future. Over the next three years, we’ll deepen our tech stack, scale operations, and build Nila into the default care partner for the diaspora.”
