Supernieto, the Valencian startup that wants to alleviate the loneliness of the elderly

When Vicente died, Pilar, his wife, changed her life.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
30 October 2022 Sunday 20:39
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Supernieto, the Valencian startup that wants to alleviate the loneliness of the elderly

When Vicente died, Pilar, his wife, changed her life. She stopped leaving the house, she lost the desire for almost everything, and even for relating, because she “had lost his travel companion. And my aunt thought that it bothered us all the time”, explains Vicente Montón, a 25-year-old from Quart de les Valls (Valencia) who has turned the distressed loneliness that life often turns into a business idea. of older people.

From her story, which she has lived closely - "my aunt Pilar lives right in front of our house" - comes the proposal for Supernieto, an emerging company that connects trusted people with older adults to improve their quality of life, help them with technology and give them independence on a day-to-day basis.

"The idea is that they help them with errands, with small daily tasks so that they are not alone," says Montón. When asked what differentiates Supernieto from other proposals already on the market, the founder explains that “we work more on prevention. We are not caregivers or nurses. We give attention and affection… what a grandson would do”, corrects the young man.

These days Supernieto has participated in the Valencia Digital Summit to publicize his proposal among investors. He founded the company six months ago and, based in the city of Valencia, there are around thirty families who have signed up to test its operation. Let's say that Supergrandson is a mediator between the caregiver -the Supergrandson- and the older adult. The former charges to care for the latter, a price that ranges between 10 and 20 euros per hour and is established by mutual agreement between caregivers and family members.

The company monetizes the management through maintenance contracts, continuous attention service, among others. "We are not a business model that needs a lot of investment, but we do think about expanding to other cities," says Vicente Montón.

Now it has opened a financing round of 150,000 euros to develop technology, since Supernieto allows employees and families to manage services through an app in which they can reserve those moments of company that the caregiver can give to the elderly.

Also, after the round, it intends to invest in marketing and communication to publicize the product, since the ambition of its young founder is to leave the Valencian Community and offer the service in Barcelona and Madrid. Despite his youth, he leaves behind two businesses - two language schools - because "I prefer to grow as a startup than to be an SME".

This entrepreneur, who cut his teeth in tennis as a "promising youngster", sometimes becomes a Super-grandson to find out what the eldest needs, although at the moment, he says, he has no shortage of candidates, since he numbers a hundred people listed as Super-grandchildren.

Everyone applies on the platform and to become caregivers they go through an "exhaustive selection process designed by the psychologist." They explore the “life trajectory” of their candidates and assure, without wanting to go into details, that this is especially “clean” so that they can be trusted. Totally.