CareYaya, a platform that connects people in need of caregivers with medical students, is working to transform the caregiver industry. The startup, showcased as part of Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt, is helping prepare students for future healthcare careers while strengthening affordable in-home support.
The startup was founded in 2022 by Neal Shah. He came up with the startup idea based on his experience working as a caregiver after his wife suffered from cancer and various other illnesses. During this time, Shah was a partner at a hedge fund and had to downsize to become a full-time caregiver for two years.
To ensure extra care for his wife, Shah hired a college student majoring in medical sciences to be her caregiver. Shah learned that other families were doing the same thing informally by posting flyers on local campuses to find qualified people to care for their loved ones.
“I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to go to a local nursing school or undergraduate campus and set up a formal system where they could do that without having to post flyers,” Shah told TechCrunch. “This is what I was doing. So we thought if we could bring this into a formal capacity through a technology platform, we could have a big impact.”
Fast-forward to 2024, and the platform now has more than 25,000 students on its platform from numerous schools, including Duke University, Stanford, UC Berkeley, San Jose State, the University of Texas at Austin, and more.
CareYaya conducts background checks on students who wish to join the platform and then completes video-based interviews. On the user side, people can sign up to the platform and then detail the type of care their loved one needs. CareYaya then connects students with their families, whether for a one-time session or ongoing care. After the first session, both parties can leave a review.
The startup says it can help families save thousands of dollars on regular senior care costs. While in-home care costs an average of $35 per hour in the United States, CareYaya charges $17 to $20 per hour.
Because the students providing care are tech-savvy, CareYaya is equipping them with AI-based technology to recognize and track disease progression in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The company recently launched a large language model (LLM) that integrates with smart glasses to collect visual data to help students provide better real-time support and conduct early dementia screening.
In terms of the future, CareYaya would like to explore expansion beyond the US as the platform has seen interest from people in places like Canada, Australia, and the UK.
