Minnesota Twins Raise $3M for Disability Care Accessibility

The Challenges of Specialized Care and a New Solution

Providing care for a family member with specialized needs presents significant difficulties, a reality often not fully understood by those without direct experience.

Individuals involved in supporting someone with special needs frequently encounter a surprising scarcity of resources when attempting to locate appropriate care providers.

Josh’s Place and the Birth of Joshin

Twin sisters Melanie Fountaine and Melissa Danielsen are intimately familiar with these challenges, having provided years of care for their brother, Josh, who lived with a developmental disability and severe epilepsy.

“Our family experienced firsthand the difficulties in securing dependable care,” Danielsen shared with TechCrunch.

Following Josh’s passing at the age of 29, twelve years ago, the sisters resolved to dedicate their professional lives to improving access to disability care for families facing complex needs. This led to the founding of Josh’s Place, a company offering group home accommodations and related services to adults throughout Minnesota.

Josh’s Place was later acquired by REM Minnesota in early 2020.

Subsequently, the pair conceived the idea for Joshin, a digital platform designed to connect families with specialized care requirements to qualified care providers.

Today, the startup announces the successful completion of a $3 million seed funding round, co-led by Anthemis Group and The Autism Impact Fund.

How Joshin Works and its Expanding Reach

Initially launched as an application for creating individualized care plans, Joshin facilitates matching families with thoroughly vetted, trained caregivers.

The platform has since expanded to incorporate a corporate benefits program, enabling Joshin to collaborate with companies seeking to offer inclusive care benefits to their employees.

Approximately one in five families grapple with complex health needs, encompassing conditions like neurodivergence in children and developmental or physical disabilities in dependent adults.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further underscored the need for support, exacerbating the difficulties in finding essential care, often leading individuals – predominantly women – to leave their jobs to become full-time caregivers.

“For a long time, individuals with special health needs and their families have been underserved and faced fragmented access to disability care providers,” stated CEO Danielsen.

Filling a Critical Gap in the Care Economy

COO Fountaine explained that the care economy has traditionally focused on childcare for those under 12 and eldercare for those over 65.

“Joshin is uniquely positioned to lead in the substantial age range that has been largely overlooked,” she noted. “We support individuals at all life stages, and it’s regrettable that this has been missing from the discussion until now.”

The newly acquired capital will be used to expand the network of care providers and broaden the corporate benefits program.

“We are dedicated to scaling our technology to alleviate the burden of caregiving responsibilities for employees and their families,” Danielsen added.

Growth and Future Expansion

Over the past year, Joshin’s community of members and caregivers has experienced 200% growth.

With the new funding, the startup intends to extend its services to Los Angeles and Seattle, in addition to its current operational areas of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Chicago, and New York City.

Joshin is preparing for a soft launch in eight new markets in the coming weeks, with a goal “to achieve national coverage very soon,” according to Fountaine.

The company is initially focusing on partnerships with employers to gather data, with plans to collaborate with managed Medicaid organizations and both private and public insurance companies in the next year to “expedite access to care for families,” Danielsen explained.

“Our ultimate aim is to provide free, high-quality care to families in need,” she told TechCrunch.

Investor Confidence and the Future of Joshin

Chris Male, co-founder of the Autism Impact Fund, emphasized his organization’s commitment to supporting companies addressing the unmet needs of the autism community.

He identified finding, retaining, and coordinating care as major obstacles faced by individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families.

“Joshin has demonstrated a capacity to reliably source caregivers with diverse skill sets and has the potential to serve as a platform for streamlining access to critical, yet fragmented, services for the special needs community,” Male stated.

“Given the current insurance landscape and the growing emphasis on DEI within companies, Joshin represents both a significant impact opportunity for a large disability market and a viable, reimbursable service and employee benefit.”

By collaborating with employers, Male added, Joshin will foster a supportive environment that enables “employees to readily access essential resources and minimize downtime.”

Matthew Jones, managing director at Anthemis, highlighted the firm’s increased investment due to the founders’ exceptional understanding of the market.

(Anthemis previously led the company’s $1.6 million funding round in July 2020.)

“The progress they’ve made since our last investment, combined with the insights they’ve gained, made doubling down on this round a clear decision,” he told TechCrunch.

Jones also noted that the inherent complexity of developing technology in this space creates substantial barriers to entry.

“The team’s resilience, coupled with their deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities in disability-related care, distinguishes Joshin,” he wrote via email. “No other platform has such specialized leadership, making it unsurprising that companies are eager to include Joshin in their employee benefits packages.”