{"id":41908,"date":"2023-10-20T15:17:21","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/sydney-startup-curo-secures-1-million-investment-from-hcf-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:17:21","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:17:21","slug":"sydney-startup-curo-secures-1-million-investment-from-hcf-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/sydney-startup-curo-secures-1-million-investment-from-hcf-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney startup Curo secures $1 million investment from HCF &#8211; StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"332\" itemprop=\"image\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/HCF-Catalyst-Demo-Day-Curo-co-founder-Tim-McDougall-640x332.jpg\" alt=\"HCF Catalyst Demo Day - Curo co-founder Tim McDougall\" title=\"HCF Catalyst Demo Day - Curo co-founder Tim McDougall\"><\/div>\n<p>A Sydney-based startup aiming to improve the lives of elderly people has scored a $1 million investment from non-profit health fund HCF.<\/p>\n<p>Curo offers passive, non-intrusive sensors that pick up positive and problematic behaviour in seniors&#8217; homes, giving care providers and families data on their movements and wellbeing.<\/p>\n<p>The startup was founded by Tim McDougall and his brother Matt after watching their own grandparents age and wanting to reduce the stress for all involved in caring for them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do is connect both professional carers and family members with seniors,\u201d McDougall tells <em>StartupSmart<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur goal is to keep people healthier and more independent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Traditionally, McDougall says the senior\u2019s health support has been very \u201creactive and emergency focused\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re great at calling the ambulance when someone has a fall but not so good at reassuring families things are okay,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>Before securing the $1 million investment from the fund, Curo recently participated in the HCF accelerator, which helped the brothers established a relationship with the organisation.<\/p>\n<p>The capital injection will help power up the startup and give access to strategic partners in the industry, McDougall says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoney is important \u2013 that helps us bring in some expertise that we wouldn\u2019t have been able to afford,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut equally important is the relationship with HCF.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>HCF\u2019s chief strategy officer Sheena Jack echoes this sentiment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHCF has a keen interest in not only the business but the greater goal of enabling people to live independently, for longer,\u201d Jack says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are delighted to be investing in Curo, which we believe can make a real difference to the lives of Australians &#8211; we look forward to watching them grow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Curo is currently looking to establish a presence in the US, with McDougall working to build operations in Michigan and the startup planning to run several pilot programs in Australia\u2019s aged care sector.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt makes us more competitive by operation in both at once,\u201d McDougall says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe become a better company and a better product.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The startup has recently signed on Medibank as a major partner, and McDougall says he is currently in talks with several other potential partners going forward.<\/p>\n<p><em>Follow StartupSmart on<\/em>&nbsp;<em>Facebook,<\/em>&nbsp;<em>Twitter,&nbsp;LinkedIn.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Sydney-based startup aiming to improve the lives of elderly people has scored a $1 million investment from non-profit health<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41908"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}