“Innovative” home care provider raises £2.1m to boost model across the North East

BelleVie Care, an “innovative” home care provider working to modernise and improve adult home care across the North East, has announced that it has received £2.1m in seed and grant funding from a group of ambitious, purpose-led investors who share its mission.

BelleVie’s Wellbeing Support Teams provide “high-quality, award-winning” care across Hexham, Prudhoe, Blyth, Cramlington and Morpeth, with the startup company expanding its operations across the rest of Northumberland and into Tyne-and-wear.

The £1.6m seed funding round, led by Skagen Conscience Capital, will enable the company to scale up its home care network across the region.

Also providing backing to this seed round are the North East Innovation Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund and managed by Northstar Ventures, The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, and Treebeard Trust.

This investment has also unlocked a further £550k in grant funding from UKRI’s Healthy Ageing Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK, the government body supporting business-led innovation across sectors and regions. This brings the total received this funding round to £2.15m, and the total the company has raised so far to £3.4m.

BelleVie’s ‘Buurtzorg’-inspired care model centres around 10-person self-managing teams serving their local community, providing continuity of care and building “trusted relationships”. Its services are funded by a unique monthly subscription model. Teams flex as the needs of those they support change, using bespoke rostering tools to adapt.

With the majority of its employees coming from a non-care background, its “excellent” onboarding and training, and a 66 per cent employee Net Promoter Score (NPS), BelleVie is proving that it can solve the recruitment and retention problems at the heart of the care crisis.

North East wellbeing leader Cath Corner, commented: “We couldn’t be more thrilled to receive this support for BelleVie in the North East. It allows us to expand our operations, offering more local people our high quality home care, helping more people to live well at home for as long as safely possible.

Commenting on the latest funding round, BelleVie co-founder and CEO Trudie Fell added: “We’re thrilled to have the backing of a great group of impact investors; their belief in us is great validation of our model.

“This investment means we can accelerate our mission to reinvent the future of work in care, creating more fulfilling careers in care, and supporting more people to thrive at home; all of which addresses one of society’s most pressing challenges.”

By Matthew Neville – Correspondent, Bdaily