Startup Corner #11: Aging populations
Why Eldercare Might Be the Most Underrated Opportunity in Tech
Hey friends,
Every so often, I find myself deep in a rabbit hole that starts with a stat — and ends with a total shift in how I think about a market.
This week, that rabbit hole was eldercare.
It started with a simple observation:
The world is getting older, fast.
By 2030, 1 in 6 people globally will be over 60. In the U.S., more people will be over 65 than under 18 for the first time in history. Japan and parts of Europe are already there.
But what caught my attention wasn’t just the demographic shift — it was how surprisingly little tech has been built for it.
And then I started noticing something else: a new wave of startups quietly building smart, scalable, tech-forward solutions for senior care. Not just hardware gadgets or clunky medical dashboards — but actual platforms, services, and AI-driven tools that feel like they belong in 2025, not 2005.
So I wanted to unpack it here — what’s happening, why it matters, and where the biggest opportunities might be for founders thinking long-term.
Why eldercare is ripe for reinvention
Let’s start with the obvious:
Eldercare has traditionally been a high-friction, low-margin space.
It’s messy, emotional, highly regulated, and slow to adopt new tools.
Not exactly a founder’s dream.
But now, the constraints that made eldercare hard are starting to become opportunities:
Labor shortages are driving demand for automation and smart monitoring.
Caregiver burnout is creating urgency for scalable support tools.
Aging-in-place preferences mean more seniors want to stay at home, not move into facilities.
And most importantly, consumer expectations have shifted — today’s seniors (and their kids) expect modern, digital-first experiences.
We’re not talking about building another retirement home. We’re talking about creating intelligent infrastructure for aging: care coordination, remote health monitoring, mobility, fall detection, mental stimulation, financial autonomy.
That’s a fundamentally different product surface than what existed even 5 years ago.
The rise of “aging tech” startups — and what they’re building
Here’s a quick snapshot of some of the areas I’m seeing real traction:
AI-powered care platforms
Startups like CarePredict and SafelyYou are using AI to analyze patterns in movement, behavior, and vitals — flagging early signs of decline before they become emergencies.
It’s not just reactive. It’s predictive.
And that shift — from alerting to anticipating — is huge.
Smart home integrations for aging-in-place
We’re seeing the merger of IoT and eldercare — voice assistants, remote sensors, pill reminders, adaptive lighting, emergency buttons.
But the real unlock is unifying all of it into a seamless system. One that doesn’t feel medical, but just works.
Think: a Ring or Nest for aging — but instead of monitoring your door, it’s monitoring your well-being.
Caregiver coordination tools
This is one of the most fragmented spaces — coordinating between family, home aides, physicians, specialists.
Startups like Honor and Alfred Health are building platforms that centralize scheduling, task tracking, communication, and payments. Less friction = better care.
Personalized health & cognitive tools
We’re also seeing innovation in brain health (e.g. Neurotrack) and chronic condition management — using personalization, adaptive routines, and feedback loops to keep users mentally and physically engaged longer.
This is where consumer health meets eldercare, and where the “silver economy” starts to look a lot like mainstream healthtech.
Why this market is uniquely attractive right now
The more I’ve looked into eldercare, the more convinced I am that it sits at the intersection of five rare traits that don’t often come together in one place. Traits that make it unusually ripe for thoughtful, enduring innovation.
1. Massive, growing, and guaranteed demand
Unlike some tech markets that might emerge or fade, this one is baked into our demographic destiny.
In the U.S. alone, over 10,000 people turn 65 every day.
By 2030, seniors will outnumber children in many countries.
Globally, the eldercare economy is expected to cross $2 trillion by the end of the decade.
This isn’t a hype cycle. It’s math.
And the demand is both expanding and intensifying — because people are living longer, and increasingly, they want to age on their own terms.
That opens the door to a wave of services, platforms, and tools that support independence — not just survival.
2. A highly fragmented, underserved market
This is not a winner-take-all space. It’s barely digitized.
You have:
A mix of private and public care providers
Legacy software tools that look like they were built in 2003
Caregivers juggling spreadsheets, emails, phone calls, and Post-it notes
Family members managing care coordination in WhatsApp groups
In short: chaos.
This kind of fragmentation is hard to solve — but it’s also where real opportunity lives.
Because when you can build something that connects the dots, even at a small scale, it creates enormous leverage for everyone involved.
You don’t need to reinvent eldercare. You just need to remove the friction that everyone’s quietly accepted.
3. An urgent labor and cost crisis
We are headed toward a caregiver shortage crisis. There simply won’t be enough trained humans to provide hands-on care at scale.
At the same time, care costs are skyrocketing — not just for full-time facilities, but even for basic at-home services.
That creates pressure — and necessity — for automation. Not to replace people, but to extend their capacity.
Smart monitoring to reduce unnecessary visits
Scheduling platforms that cut coordination time
AI assistants to summarize reports, flag risk, or handle repetitive tasks
These aren’t luxuries. They’re infrastructure.
The market needs better tools, not just wants them.
4. Emotional urgency and personal relevance
Almost every founder I know has a personal story about helping aging parents or grandparents. They’ve seen the pain points. They’ve felt the anxiety. They understand the stakes.
That matters — because it creates:
Founder-market fit
Empathy-driven design
Staying power in a tough category
And for buyers (families, patients, caregivers), this isn’t just software.
It’s peace of mind. It’s time back. It’s safety.
That kind of emotional ROI drives conversion in a way that product specs never can.
5. The regulatory and reimbursement tide is turning
For a long time, one of the biggest blockers in this space was regulation — especially in the U.S. healthcare system.
But now we’re seeing real momentum:
Medicare Advantage plans are expanding coverage for in-home care, tech-enabled services, and remote monitoring.
State-level programs are experimenting with tech reimbursement.
Private payers are increasingly willing to fund tech tools that reduce hospital readmissions or caregiver burnout.
And for startups that can play the long game, this shift means the revenue model is no longer stuck in the cash-pay trap.
What I’m thinking about now
If I were starting something in this space today, I’d be asking:
Can I build a product that supports caregivers as much as patients?
What does an “invisible interface” for eldercare look like — something that supports without overwhelming?
How can I turn real-time data into personalized micro-decisions that improve health or comfort?
Is there a way to integrate into existing payment flows (Medicare, long-term care insurance, family budgets) to lower friction?
And most of all:
What would it look like to build a product that I’d want my parents — or myself — to use one day?
That’s the litmus test.
Final thought: this is a rare convergence of market, mission, and tech timing
Every so often, you find a space where the macro trends, the human needs, and the tech capabilities all line up. I think eldercare might be one of those spaces right now.
The demographic tailwinds are real.
The tools are finally good enough.
And the people building in this space? They’re motivated by something deeper than just TAM.
This isn’t a “hot market.” It’s a meaningful one.
And I think it’s wide open for thoughtful founders who want to build something enduring.
Let’s keep an eye on it.
— RB
Startup Corner