Pictured: Founder & CEO Grace Petherick
The funding support comes on the back of strong private investment, which the Alice Fund matches with a dollar for every three invested by private backers into companies like Age Up Health that are female led.
Age Up’s success is rarer again as a start-up that has gone from strength-to-strength since launching in March 2020 – despite sharing
this moment with a global pandemic and serving an ageing demographic.
The brainchild of Founder & CEO Grace Petherick, Age Up set out to revolutionise aged care with contemporary servicing and smarter
tech-led solutions in a sector that had remained unchanged in 100+ years.
“I knew I could do better,” Petherick said when reflecting on the appalling experience her own grandparents had while seeking home care
support services. Combined with years of global experience in service industries, Petherick’s passion to make change was ignited.
“Solving the industry’s biggest pain points with a truly consumer-focussed outlook is central to what we do, and then using accessible
technology to meet people where they are at.
“Our data reveals even some of our oldest clients use mobile and SMS communications, so conversational automation is one way we’re reaching clients, who under traditional models have been left without services, or communications. We’re rethinking the whole model to give older people what they deserve,” she added.
LaunchVic CEO Dr Kate Cornick praised Age Up Health as a Victorian startup on the rise.
“The Alice Anderson Fund was developed by LaunchVic to drive investment to women-led startups.”
“We are really thrilled to back founders like Grace who are challenging conventional pathways in the aged care industry to build a product that is making a genuine impact.”
Grace’s visionary and innovative approach has attracted extensive investor and media attention, including placing as a finalist in the current Telstra Business Awards and winning a City of Melbourne Innovative Business Grant.
Grace has built Age Up Health from scratch, achieving 2000% growth in its first year, and strong month-on-month growth since for results many businesses would envy.
Grace Petherick has an MBA from Melbourne Business School and boasts an extensive service background having worked in corporate,
tourism and VIP services across five countries, each with diverse people and cultures. Back home, she has consulted to traditional retail,
online meal kit delivery and Indigenous-run service operations in the remote Kimberly region. This broad experience has built extensive
capability in managing people, building teams, strategic thinking, operations and finance and customer experience.
Age Up was launched in the wake of Founder Grace Petherick’s personal experience seeking help for her own grandparents. Trekking the
Himalayan Mountains, the vision for revolutionising aged care crystalised, and her passion to change a broken industry unchanged for 100+
years gave rise to Age Up.
Global experience in the service sector informed her vision, along with a new tech-enabled model, and the market response has been
evidence to the much-needed change.
Read more about our story.
A free, easy-to-follow guide on topics including eligibility, what the assessor looks for, how to apply for funding and more.
Book a no-obligation Home Care consultation to discuss your individual situation, to get the right help & advice
for you.
This fact sheet tackles the top 20 most frequently asked questions about Home Care Packages, with simple straightforward answers.
Discover how to easily compare the various fees & services for the best value care, and to get more from your Home
Care Package.
Contact us today to find out how we can support you and your loved ones.