Kevala Raises $4.0 Million to Provide Intelligent Workforce Management and Care Orchestration Platform for the Fast-Growing Long-Term Care Industry
SEATTLE — January 26, 2021 — Kevala today announced that it has raised $4.0 million to provide long-term care organizations with an intelligent workforce management and care orchestration platform that elevates employee productivity and engagement, improves quality of care and automates compliance. Vulcan Capital led the financing, with participation from Costanoa Ventures, High Alpha and PSL Ventures. Kevala spun out of Pioneer Square Labs last April.
Long-term care, which includes senior living, skilled nursing and rehabilitation, home care, and hospice, is the fastest growing segment of healthcare and represents over 65,000 service providers.
“Long-term care eventually affects all of us, but we in the tech industry have not done our part to properly equip the facilities and people doing the hard work on the front lines,” said Todd Owens, CEO and co-founder of Kevala. “Kevala is on a mission to deliver an integrated and intelligent solution that enables caregivers to spend more time with their patients and residents.”
With Kevala, long-term care organizations can use the platform to:
- Automate the cumbersome onboarding and credentialing process;
- Optimize scheduling to improve labor utilization and eliminate waste;
- Eliminate unnecessary overtime and associated staff burnout;
- Offer in-house caregivers a secure platform to collaborate; and
- Provide an efficient marketplace to add supplemental staff when necessary.
“At Aegis, the key to our success has always been our people who provide remarkable, personal, hands-on care to each and every resident,” said Kris Engskov, President of Aegis Living, a national leader in senior assisted living and memory care. “We’re incredibly excited to work with Kevala to develop a unique platform that will enable us to better manage our care team’s time and scheduling - to ensure everyone is in the right place, at exactly the right time - and do it with the same technology they are already using in other parts of their lives.”
When healthcare facilities need to employ temporary staff from third-party agencies, Kevala maintains a ready pool of high-quality, credentialed workers so that shifts can be filled without the usual delay, administration, and risk that results from managing transactions over phone and text.
“The sad reality today is that supervisors call down long lists of staffing firms, relying on voice mail and ad-hoc text messages to fill urgent shifts,” said Amy Cheetham, Principal at Costanoa Ventures who joined the board as part of the financing. “It’s an archaic and painful process. We are convinced that Kevala’s solution can provide a better way.”
In the healthcare industry, compliance is often managed using paper and spreadsheets. Kevala’s solution automates the compliance process from initial hire through the lifecycle of an employee.
“We love that Kevala is attacking the compliance piece of the healthcare system with a modern SaaS solution,” said Scott Dorsey, Managing Partner of High Alpha and former CEO and Chairman of ExactTarget. “This is an area ripe for change as Kevala helps organizations replace their paper and spreadsheets with intelligent software.”
Owens was the former CEO of TalentWise, which was acquired by Sterling Talent Solutions forming the world’s largest background check and credentialing company. After serving as COO of Sterling, Owens then served as CEO of Appuri and Azuqua, which were acquired by Docusign and Okta, respectively.
Kevala’s founding team includes Noah Kusz and Patrick Lawler, both of whom were senior executives who worked closely with Owens at Azuqua, as well as Jake Gordon, a former senior technologist at EagleView and LiquidPlanner. The company will use the new funds to hire experienced web and mobile engineers, hire a product leader, and expand its service to additional long-term care organizations.
“Healthcare organizations need modern, intelligent software to help them manage their workforces and improve the lives of their clients and patients,” said Greg Gottesman, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Pioneer Square Labs and PSL Ventures. “Todd is a visionary leader. I couldn’t be more excited to partner with him and the rest of the Kevala team on this unique opportunity.”
About Kevala
Kevala is an intelligent workforce management and care orchestration platform specifically built to address the unique needs of long-term care organizations, including senior living, skilled nursing and rehabilitation, home care, and hospice. Long-term care is the fastest growing segment of healthcare and yet is the most underserved by technology. By building an
integrated and intelligent SaaS solution, Kevala is able to maximize employee productivity and engagement, while increasing quality of care and improving the bottom line. For more information, please visit www.kevala.care.
About Costanoa Ventures
Costanoa Ventures backs tenacious and thoughtful founders who change how business gets done. Costanoa seeks to be a long-term partner to entrepreneurs building durable companies leveraging data to solve complex business problems. For more information, please visit www.costanoavc.com.
About High Alpha
High Alpha, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a leading venture studio focused on conceiving, launching and scaling next-generation B2B SaaS companies. For more information visit highalpha.com or follow on Twitter @highalpha.
About Pioneer Square Labs (PSL)
Pioneer Square Labs is a Seattle-based startup studio and venture firm (PSL Ventures) that finances, creates and launches technology startups. For more information, please visit www.psl.com.
About Vulcan Capital
Vulcan Capital is the multi-billion-dollar investment arm of Vulcan Inc., the company founded by Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen. Vulcan Capital is focused on generating long-term value appreciation across a portfolio which spans diverse industry sectors and investment asset classes, ranging from early-stage venture investments to public equity value investing, leveraged buyouts, acquisitions, special situations and fixed income.
