A Welsh startup has secured six-figure pre-seed equity investment for its innovation in child social care.
Lumin Solutions, which spun out of Newport-based Alacrity Foundation, has developed a case management system for use by child social care providers.
Co-founders Piers Oliphant, Ben Gretton and Ben Miller – 25, 23 and 24 years of age respectively – first met when taking part in the Alacrity Foundation Entrepreneurship Programme.
The 12-month programme provides graduates with practical business training, software skills and mentoring so that they can develop as entrepreneurs and launch tech companies.
The round was led by SFC Capital and featured the Development Bank of Wales and a syndicate of business angels.
Lumin’s innovative software product is an outcome-focused recording and planning system for care providers, many of whom remain paper-based. It offers a digital care assistant that improves user experience and outcomes, reduces costs and improves regulatory compliance with evidence tracking.
Key features include care plans, assessments and regular reporting. AI-powered analytics will enable users to analyse their data and records with speed and customisation, offering insights into their organisation and care practices to improve outcomes and prepare for inspections.
The funding from SFC, the Development Bank and the syndicate of business angels led by lead investor Darryl Morton will be used to scale-up product development, sales and marketing.
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“The UK’S digital strategy is pushing care providers to adopt digital care recording systems and maintain appropriate records by 2025. With 60% of care providers still paper-based or partly digital, this is a rapidly growing market,” said Oliphant.
“Our technology will help provide local care providers with a data-driven and joined-up approach that has a clear audit trail. This will allow care providers more time to focus on providing quality care, therefore ultimately improving childcare.
“The Alacrity Programme has helped us to become investor ready so that we can secure the funding needed to scale our operation but what we are really excited about is being able to access the knowledge and experience of our investors, particularly Darryl who has founded, scaled and exited similar tech businesses.”
Lead investor Darryl Morton of Summit Venture said: “The child social care market is under-served by quality care management software systems. In a short space of time, the team at Lumin have already developed a core system and have road-tested this with a number of industry partners, and now, with the financial backing from this investment round, are poised to develop the software further and help to raise standards within the sector. It is a really exciting opportunity to be involved with.”
Adam Beveridge of SFC Capital said: “One of the biggest challenges for any startup is securing initial funding. It is credit to the team at Lumin and their commitment to developing innovative software that tackles real-life industry problems, that this pre-seed round has been so successful.
“We’re pleased to be adding them to our investment portfolio of over 400 startups and look forward to supporting them alongside the Development Bank and Darryl as our co-investors.”