The founder of CareLineLive expects the business to be profitable early next year.
Josh Hough set up the all-in-one home care management software firm in 2014 after becoming frustrated at the lack of access to information regarding his grandfather’s care.
Over the years he has maxed out credit cards to keep the Sussex firm afloat; raised millions of pounds in investment; and now expanded into Australia.
“We’re forecasting a move into profitability for the end of January,” Hough tells BusinessCloud. “We’re now at £3.5 million of annual recurring revenue, with 42 staff.”
A regular on our HealthTech 50 innovation ranking, CareLineLive now works with over 600 home care providers around the world, managing over 15,000 carers, following the acquisition last year of the business behind CareForIT and Ulysses.
Financed by an investment round with Oakglen, Hough says the deal took around 18 months to complete and saw it increase its presence with local authorities.
“Opportunities have arisen – such as the acquisition – which have been good for us and have added to our profitability. But the deal costs were more than expected because it took a long while to complete the acquisition,” Hough acknowledges.
“Everybody seems to say the two most stressful things in life are getting divorced and buying a house. I’ve not done either, so I can’t vouch for that… but what I can say is, having gone through the process of buying a business, neither are high up on my list of things to do now!”
CareLineLive has also increased its NHS foothold, while the firm is averaging 4% month-over-month growth for the last 18 months. Hough says he expects the business to double in size in the coming 12 months, while staff numbers will reach 50 by the end of January 2025.
Hough, who recently got married and honeymooned in Australia, says the move into that market is “really exciting”.
Candid as ever, he adds by way of advice: “What we’ve realised is that every time we make a turn, we find more things [that need to be addressed]: it could be something really simple like language in the platform – we call it a ‘roster’, they might want to see it called a ‘schedule’.
“Also, don’t underestimate the time difference. Australia is close to us in language and the way they work, but we’re looking at nine hours difference to Victoria.
“That is not perfect. I’m reasonably happy to do whatever I want with my time: if I choose to wake up at three o’clock in the morning and have a meeting, that’s ultimately my decision – but don’t underestimate the pressures that might place upon your colleagues.”
CareLineLive, which operates in the UK, Ireland, Jersey and Australia, is NHSX certified as a Digital Social Care Record (DSCR) assured supplier, in addition to achieving accreditations such as NHS Data Security Protection (DSP) Toolkit, Cyber Essentials Plus, ISO 9001 and 27001.