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As a kid, Havi Nguyen sometimes missed school to translate at doctor’s appointments, and was managing Medicaid paperwork for her family, who had recently immigrated from Vietnam. Whatever life in a new country threw at them, Nguyen as the eldest daughter was there—and the labyrinthine American health care system featured prominently in her world.
At 21, she started working at an early-stage health tech startup focused on therapy for children with autism. It was the depths of COVID, and it was clear to Nguyen there was a gap: There just weren’t enough therapists and technicians, and sometimes they would move on rapidly from one gig to another.
“The question I kept asking myself was: Who’s that one person in the child’s life who’s not going to turn away, and is able to be with them to deliver that care?” Nguyen said. “Parents were always willing to raise their hand and step up. They would consistently ask us: Is there a way for me to learn these skills? So, I thought: Could we design a care model where the person who wants to deliver care to the patient is already with them?”
The answer was Abby Care, an AI-native home care startup that trains family members to become certified, paid caregivers and supports them thereafter. Nguyen founded the company—which operates as a Medicaid provider—in 2022.
Now, Abby Care has raised an $82 million Series C, led by Transformation Capital, Fortune has exclusively learned. CVS Health Ventures, Frist Cressey Ventures, and Pivotal Ventures count among the company’s new investors, while existing investors Khosla Ventures, Thrive Capital, and Sequoia doubled down. The company works with health plans to arrange care at home for families that need it. In short, the hope is that by looping in patients, regulators, health plans, and family caregivers, there’s a view toward a health care system that works better for the most vulnerable.
“The companies that are really going to be able to succeed are companies that can think about designing the care model that brings all the stakeholders and the U.S. health care system together,” Nguyen said.
Much has been made of the pressures on the health care workforce in the U.S., from the burnout of doctors and nurses to the extant and looming labor shortages. The caregiving gap for patients at home is notably wide, said Justin Brock, general partner at CVS Health Ventures. Brock noted there are many possible competitors to Abby Care, from existing home health agencies to caregiver education platforms, but the need is simply massive.
“A traditional private duty nurse program only fills 65% of authorized shifts, which is crazy,” he told Fortune. “It’s really leaving so many medically complex members without consistent coverage… [Meanwhile] you have these tens of millions of family caregivers who are in the home, and a lot of them are already doing care.”
Among them, Maria Villegas Corrales, a mom in Colorado, whose daughter Mia was born with serious medical complexities that necessitated open heart surgery and a pacemaker in the first years of her life. She learned about Abby Care after Mia’s surgery in June 2024, and Corrales is clear: Guidance isn’t a given.
“Sometimes they just give you a little bag to go home and figure it out,” Corrales said. “It’s scary to go home and not be able to know what’s to be expected. And a lot of times it’s just learning on the run.”
Corrales said that becoming a paid caregiver has allowed her to be the best mother possible to Mia, and that a lot of families still have no idea: “Families can have the resources to be paid to care for their child, that’s number one, because a lot of people don’t know about this.”
It’s a lifelong relationship, of course, which Nguyen is attuned to.
“I always tell the team this: Abby Care isn’t just here to empower and pay family caregivers,” she said. “We’re ultimately here to make them feel like they can thrive and succeed.”
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
X: @agarfinks
Email: [email protected]
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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
