Born in Barcelona, Vermut has raised its first international funding round and plans a big move to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. The agetech startup is driven by impact, aiming to address loneliness amongst retirees through its social app.
Hitting retirement age can, for many, be a lovely opportunity to try new hobbies, meet new people and start a new stage of life. Being retired certainly gives people more time and they can use that to finally prioritize themselves and their enjoyment.
However, for many, this stage of life can be categorized by loneliness. No longer seeing work colleagues and friends every day in the office, no longer with kids in the house, and sometimes socially isolated through personal or other extenuating circumstances. Aiming to change this by empowering older people with an app that promotes a new lease of life and the chance to join a supportive community, is Vermut.
Founded in Barcelona in 2020, Vermut offers older people a dedicated platform where they can sign up for activities that appeal to them and join a community to meet new people and get new friends. The impact-led startup has now received international funding and is planning a move to the USA.
Fernando Dellepiane, Founder: “Vermut wants to eradicate the fear of getting older in society on a global level. We began the journey in Spain, but we have our eyes set on the world.”
The details
Vermut raised €1.5 million in this recent round. BitKraft led the round alongside Gaingels, Service Providers and Calm/Storm.
The funding will be used to continue growing the platform in the Spanish market, where now there are two big and growing hubs of Vermut activity in Madrid and Barcelona, as well as to take on the North American market.
To achieve this, the startup has actually created American headquarters in Delaware, becoming Vermut Senior Community INC, and the first Spanish agetech startup to have a US base.
Vermut had previously been backed by a group of Business Angels. In 2020, it took part in an accelerator programme, Traction de Lanzadera, and, in 2021 raised an initial round of €150k. This past month, after taking part in the Birdhouse accelerator programme in Belgium, the young startup has been able to soar, picking up this funding round and expanding its international presence.
Impact-driven mission
Created by Fernando Dellepiane and Enric Duran in 2020, the Barcelona-based startup was developed to address a social need – the isolation of a generation. The two founders, who previously worked for Glovo and so well acquainted with Spain’s startup community, launched Vermut to address challenges they saw their own parents struggling with.
The founders stated: “The older generation is highly digitalized but until now, a platform or offering of social activities, created specifically for them, didn’t exist. We want Vermut to become this point of contact for older people that has been missing. A social network with the content and usability that this group of people need, that also provides a marketplace of empowering activities to end social isolation and loneliness, and that facilitates interaction between older people with the same interests.”
The digital platform has been designed intuitively giving seniors the ability to navigate the app and use it without facing any technical barriers. It gives them the chance to create new authentic connections through taking part in social activities and experiences and meeting like-minded people. Activities include everything from meeting for a vermut, zumba classes and excursions. It gives older people empowerment to get out there, try new things and meet new people.
Users simply make their profile and can easily sign up for different meet-ups and join this growing network. In 2022 alone, more than 16k registered users are opening the app at least once a day and more than 50k connections have been made.
