A startup that wants to provide better in-home care for seniors just raised another $42 million

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sethsternberg

Courtesy Honor

Seth Sternberg, CEO of Honor

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Honor, a Silicon Valley-based company that helps connect seniors to home care professionals, has just raised another $42 million to help it take over the multi-billion-dollar home care industry.

The round is led by New York-based Thrive Capital, as well as 8VC, Andreessen Horowitz, and Syno Capital. Andreessen Horowitz has previously invested $15 million in Honor, so along with $5 million from angel investors, Honor's raised in total $62 million.

Honor launched in April 2015, and since then, CEO and co-founder Seth Sternberg told Business Insider, they've become the largest home care provider in the San Francisco Bay area. Honor also expanded to Los Angeles, and this funding round will in part help them move into east into Dallas as well.

The home health industry is a "fragmented" system. There are an estimated 2.5 million home care workers out there, and about 12,400 home health agencies managing them all. The idea with Honor is to streamline the whole process using technology, while at the same time making it possible to pay the home care professionals more than they would otherwise make.

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Thrive venture capitalist Kareem Zaki told Business Insider that it was it was important to Thrive that Honor owns the whole system, instead of say, setting up a marketplace connecting independent care professionals to those who are seeking home care. Zaki says he learned the importance of this from Thrive's investment in $2.7 billion Oscar Health Insurance.

"Honor owns the full experience," Zaki said. "Honor works with the providers, and the patient is Honor's customer at end of the day."

Making the technology simple

01 tablet visit summary

Courtesy Honor

A screenshot of the Honor app.

Here's how Honor works: In the app, the person who needs care, or a family member, can plug in the relevant information (say, that the person has a cat and has diabetes). Then, Honor will line that person up with a "Care Pro" (the home care professional) who's a good fit and has the right expertise to help that person out. Through the app, the family member can schedule times when they need a Care Pro to stop by, add details, and monitor to make sure the visit actually happened.

That way, the Care Pros, the seniors receiving care, and their loved ones are all connected through Honor's app. You can also call a number if you don't want to use the app all the time.

Honor's platform fits in with Sternberg's vision for the company. It'll be like a car: There's a lot of complex technology going on behind the scenes, but driving the car is easy enough for anyone to do.

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"We use a lot of tech to make Honor better, but the consumer perceives Honor to be the care professional who walks through the door." Sternberg said. "Ideally people don't think about Honor as a technology, ideally it's just better because the tech is there."

Reconnecting the home back into the healthcare system

Beyond helping out with everyday tasks, the Care Pro often plays a critical role in managing the senior's healthcare, Sternberg said, from taking notes to the doctor's office, to making sure they take their medication. So Honor's started rolling out a program called the "Wellness Check" where the Care Pros can take notes and document how the senior is feeling on a particular day.

That data collection was something that particularly drew Thrive in as well.

"The home becomes a black box for providers," Zaki said. This technology, he said, could be the link that connects time spent at home to the hospital and physicians. Honor has also partnered with organizations like the American Cancer Society and the National Parkinson's Foundation.

Beyond Dallas, where Honor is currently hiring, Honor's plan is to keep expanding across the country.

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But Honor isn't the only company going after this space using tech. East-coast competitor Hometeam has raised $43.5 million and operates in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

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