Lily Vittayarukskul (see illustration above) examined the aerospace technology when colon cancer ended with its aunt was diagnosed. Her aunt had lived under the identical roof as Vittayarukskul when she grew up and received it. “We all made our care,” she recalled.
After chemotherapy, Vittayarukskul's aunt became “very frail”, in order that her family-Urban-Urban navigated from Cambodia Etwa for 2 and a half years of her every day long-term care needs. “It worn out financially,” she said to Techcrunch.
The emotional and financial effects were so traumatic that Vittayarukskul prompted to show their studies into genetic and data science studies.
Ultimately, she founded WaterlilyA 4 -year -old startup in San Francisco, which is imagined to help with the modeling of costs and financing strategies. According to Vittayarukskul, the goal is to recommend financial advisors and insurance agents “recommend the best financial products that recommend the long -term long -term care needs of a family”.
Vittayarukskul said: “Usually individuals begin to take into consideration long -term care once they are between 65 and 70 years or in the event that they need it.” But in lots of cases it will possibly be too late.
Waterlily uses artificial intelligence to predict the longer term long -term care needs and costs of a family after which take it to the establishment of a care plan and the best technique to pay for it, “said Vittayarkskul towards Techcrunch.” That could mean life insurance with one Buying long-term care drivers, buying a dedicated LTC policy, using annuities or just financing yourself. “
The prediction of Waterlily will be used for one person over 40.
The company comes from greater than 500 million data points and algorithms for mechanical learning using its AI modeling software to “perform highly personalized care and value forecasts” and the “when”, “how” and “how much” by someone predict potential long -term care needs .
“We have formal data exchange agreements with long-term care providers, state databases, academic research studies and individual users”–beerunter the centers for Medicare & MedicaID services and the long-term insurance program of the federal and we conclude similar contracts with insurance carriers to secure their anonymized data, “said Vittayarukskul.
Vittayarukskul initially began Waterlily as a solo founder, until Evan Ehrenberg, a small angel investor. Ehrenberg – who had previously founded and sold Clara Health – helped with early research and was impressed by the response of the industry. Curiously he tested the platform himself and was shocked by his long-term care forecast in order that he modified his food plan, hired a private trainer and updated his financial plans.
This experience pulled him deeper. He saw parallels between long -term care and problems he had met in clinical studies. Clara Health had helped tens of 1000’s of patients to search out studies, but he also saw what number of didn’t turn to them due to the newest treatments, but for generic imitators of existing medication, because the insurance wouldn’t cover the name fire medication they need. Long-term care brought an analogous knowledge of medical health insurance, and plenty of usually are not prepared for the financial burden, found that Vittayarukskul has found.
“After six months of collaboration, we knew that it was an important fit and made it a co -founder,” she said.
Ehrenberg's own background story is interesting: after graduating from UC Berkeley at 16, he became the youngest neuroscientific doctoral thesis. Today he also serves as Chief Operating Officer from Waterlily.
Stand out in a sophisticated room
There are other tools that help with long -term planning, but Vittayarukskul believes that they differ from Waterlily's more personal offer. For example, Genworth's Cost of Care Calculator shows the common values for zippers. Navi-, Emoney, Moneyguidepro and RightCapital are wider financial planning platforms that contain basic long-term care modules or cost calculators than one in every of their multiple functions.
According to her, “helping to model pension and insurance scenarios during these tools, your LTC assumptions are frequently driven by national average or Monte Carlo simulations so as to burden financial planning by introducing noise right into a fundamental failure simulation.” In contrast, Waterlily combines “the deep predictive modeling with a user -friendly platform.”
Waterlily only publicly launched his platform in March 2024, so it isn’t yet more market within the yr. And she said his average MRR growth of month for the month since its introduction was 58%.
The company currently has eight “large” corporate customers, including Prudential and “Several other Fortune 100 insurance providers”. According to Vittayarukskul, there are also lots of of independent financial advisors and insurance agents who use Waterlily. The sales model relies on SaaS, with the corporate calculating $ 250 per consultant or agent seat per 30 days.
And now the startup has led seed financing of seven million US dollars John Kim, founding partner of Brewer Lane Ventures, with strategic investments by Genworth, Nationwide and Edward Jones. The startup previously brought a prepared round of $ 2.2 million from investors similar to Scott Barclay, Managing Director of Healthcare at Insight Partners.
Waterlily plans to make use of his recent capital, which has been raised via a secure, to accumulate its technical data science and enterprise management teams and further strengthen its AI models and data partnerships. It can also be planned to extend sales and marketing efforts.
In addition to the contractors, the startup currently has nine full -time employees.
With a view to the longer term, Waterlily checks disabilities, critical diseases, hospital damage and medical planning and “really every area by which advanced predictive models would help families to make life and medical health insurance decisions,” said Vittayarukskul.
The company says that it also receives rates of interest from insurance providers who wish to use its data in drawing. It may additionally have the option to expand internationally to Canada, Great Britain and parts of Asia.
Investor Kim, who can also be a former President of New York Life, said Techcrunch, that he brought in money in Waterlily because he believes that it’s “the primary AI-native guideline instrument, in regards to the biggest need within the age of Americans to support “.
He added: “The LTC insurance is an enormous and growing need and is now largely under -supplied by trustworthy consultants. Waterlily's Guidance tool has no comparable offer. It offers an adapted and personalized advice for the LTC requirements. I believe it is going to be a player for the LTC insurance market. “
