We reviewed over 200 businesses worldwide*, and have identified over 165 businesses operating in the care economy across Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia who met the following 4 criteria:
1. Geography focus: operating in project target countries.
2. Care economy impact: business activities recognize, reduce, reward or redistribute care work.
3. Proof of concept: care economy activities at least at the launch stage (none of the businesses are at concept stage).
4. Market-based intervention: already or planning to be financially profitable or to generate income in the medium term.
Out of the mapping we selected 60 businesses to conduct a full profile and showcase potential investment opportunities. These profiles have been created from information and data provided by the business itself. Use the filter on the left to access the businesses profiled.
* Disclaimer: The data presented in the business mapping and profiles is based on information provided by the businesses and has not been independently verified
Kiidu
Website: www.kiidu.com
Headquarters: Thailand
Country of Operations: Thailand
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman, At least 30% women in senior leadership positions
About the organization: Kiidu’s model empowers domestic workers and care givers with jobs and helps parents find personnel such as nannies, tutors, maids, senior caregivers, nurses and drivers in Thailand. The solution has led to reduced care work through provision of domestic services. This for-profit company intends to expand its services to the Philippines.
Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: Infant-care (children younger than 1-year), Child-care (Ages 1 to 5), Child-care (Ages 6 and above), Elderly-care (Ages 60 and above), Care for persons with special needs (disabled / differently abled persons), Care for people with illnesses, Domestic services, Labour saving solutions
Activities in the care economy: Provision of technology & services that train/upskill domestic & care workers
Pathway to impact: Recognize, Reduce, Redistribute
Komodo Water
Website: www.komodowater.org
Headquarters: Indonesia
Country of Operations: Indonesia
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman, At least 51% women-owned, At least 30% of women in senior leadership
About the organization: Komodo is a for-profit entity that provides clean and affordable drinking water in villages of Indonesia. The entity’s services reduces the time spent on collecting clean water in rural regions.
Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: Labour saving solutions
Activities in the care economy: Provision of affordable time and labour saving technology and products
Pathway to impact: Redistribute, Reduce
LavanderiApp
Website: www.lavanderiapp.io
Headquarters: Mexico
Country of Operations: Mexico
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman
About the organization: LavanderiApp is a platform of high social impact that generates sources of self-employment for women through the provision of laundry services. It aims to reduce the amount of time spent on domestic services and to provide flexible jobs for women. They plan to expand through Latin America and to become a flexible and marked-based solution for both employees and clients.
Stage of Growth: Small scale roll-out/Early stage
Types of Services: Domestic services, Labour saving solutions
Activities in the care economy: Provision of technology & services that train/upskill domestic & care workers (e.g. technology that links employers to domestic/care workers)
Pathway to impact: Reduce
Lavapp
Website: www.lavapp.me
Headquarters: Argentina
Country of Operations: Argentina, Mexico, Other Countries
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman, At least 30% women in senior leadership positions
About the organization: Lavapp is the first App in Latin America that connects people with the best laundry stores in their neighborhood, allowing them to manage their orders from their smartphones without leaving their homes and with free delivery. Lavapp’s team’s goal is to become an economic alternative for thousands of people who need an additional income. They are addressing the challenge of the lack of affordable solutions to reduce the amount of time spent on care and domestic work, and the limited redistribution of care and domestic work to other actors in the care economy. The app has been recognized as a dignified and rewarding work tool that helped more than 100 families in 2020.
Stage of Growth: Small scale roll-out/Early stage
Types of Services: Domestic services, Labour saving solutions
Activities in the care economy: Provision of technology & services that train/upskill domestic & care workers (e.g. technology that links employers to domestic/care workers), Provision of technology, services & policies/practice that improve condition for domestic & care worker (e.g. apps that calculate decent remuneration), Provision of affordable time and labour saving technology and products (e.g. product that makes washing, cooking more efficient)
Pathway to impact: Reduce, Redistribute
LivelyHoods Kenya
Website: www.livelyhoods.org
Headquarters: Kenya
Country of Operations: Kenya
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman, At least 30% women in senior leadership positions, At least 30% of women in board of directors
About the organization: Livelyhoods Kenya is a non-profit social enterprise that provides last-mile distribution of essential items in slum communities of Kenya. Livelyhoods Kenya trains women who work as sales agents in the community. Through its intervention, Livelyhoods has enabled women to purchase products that have reduced their care work, including cookstove and solar lights. Adoption of these products has reduced household expenditures and drudgery for women.
Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: Domestic services, Labour saving solutions
Activities in the care economy: Provision of affordable services that provide care & domestic work
Pathway to impact: Reduce, Reward
LivUp
Website: www.liv-up.cl
Headquarters: Chile
Country of Operations: Chile
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman, At least 51% owned by women
About the organization: LivUp is dedicated to prolonging and protecting the vitality of the elderly. This Chilean platform promotes prevention to decrease the need for intensive care. LiveUp is addressing the limited redistribution of care and domestic work and creating affordable solutions to reduce the amount of time spent on caring f and domestic work. Between 2018 and 2020, LivUp has impacted 97 families with the innovative figure of autonomy’s promoter and by employing people over their 50s.
Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: Elderly-care (Ages 60 and above)
Activities in the care economy: Provision of technology & services that train/upskill domestic & care workers (e.g. technology that links employers to domestic/care workers), Provision of technology, services & policies/practice that improve condition for domestic & care worker (e.g. apps that calculate decent remuneration), Provision of affordable services that provide care & domestic work (e.g. affordable daycare services in rural areas), Awareness raising on the care economy through marketing, information campaigns & programmes that raise awareness & increase motivation
Pathway to impact: Reduce, Redistribute
mDoc Healthcare
Website: www.mymdoc.com
Headquarters: Nigeria
Country of Operations: Nigeria
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman
About the organization: mDoc is a digital health company focused on providing people living with chronic disease with 24/7 access to integrated care support in sub-Saharan Africa. This for-profit company reduces the time spent on care work by supporting people with illnesses to manage their health.
Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: Care for people with illnesses
Activities in the care economy: Provision of affordable services that provide care & domestic work
Pathway to impact: Reduce
MyNurz
Website: mynurz.com
Headquarters: Indonesia
Country of Operations: Indonesia, Thailand
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman
About the organization: MyNurz is a for-profit company that provides home care health services in Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. Its services consist of non-hospital care, care training and advisory services, through provision of nurses (specialist and general, practical nurse, nurse aides), physical, occupational and speech therapists. It reduces the care work undertaken by households through provision of home care providers. The company has completed over 40,000 caregiving sessions.
Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: “Elderly-care (Ages 60 and above)
Care for persons with special needs (disabled / differently abled persons)
Care for people with illnesses”
Care for persons with special needs (disabled / differently abled persons)
Care for people with illnesses”
Activities in the care economy: Provision of technology & services that train/upskill domestic & care workers
Pathway to impact: Reduce
Nanas & Amas
Website: nanasyamas.com
Headquarters: Peru
Country of Operations: Peru
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman, At least 51% owned by women, At least 30% women in senior leadership positions, At least 30% of women in board of directors
About the organization: Nanas & Amas connects domestic workers, such as babysitters, home helpers, and elderly caregivers, with families that require their services. This Peruvian agency aims to transform domestic work into a platform so that women who did not have the opportunity to do it at the time can grow, living the happy and prosperous lives that they deserve. Through its platform, Nanas & Amas work to promote domestic work and decent conditions as a tool to build prosperity for the people who do the work. The agency has achieved the approval of a law key to advance domestic workers’ formalization by granting economic incentives to employers. Also, they have started the Student Worker Movement, getting competitors to join them.
Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: Infant-care (children younger than 1-year), Child-care (Ages 1 to 5), Child-care (Ages 6 and above), Elderly-care (Ages 60 and above), Domestic services
Pathway to impact: Reduce, Reward
Nazava Water Filters
Website: www.nazava.com
Headquarters: Indonesia
Country of Operations: Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kenya
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman, At least 30% women in senior leadership positions, At least 30% of women in board of directors
About the organization: Nazava is a for-profit enterprise that produces affordable gravity based ceramic household water filters, replacing the need to boil water on wood or LPG. It reduces care work as women save 139 hours per year on boiling and collecting fuel using the water filters. Nazava purified water is 3 times cheaper than boiling and 9 times cheaper than buying water from refill-kiosks.
Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: Labour saving solutions
Activities in the care economy: Provision of affordable time and labour saving technology and products
Pathway to impact: Reduce
Okboy
Website: www.okboy.app
Headquarters: Mexico
Country of Operations: Mexico
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman
About the organization: Okboy is a Mexican multiservice platform to manage domestic services quickly, efficiently, and safely. They offer multiple services, including house cleaning, among other household facilities. Okboy helps reduce the time dedicated to domestic services and provides flexible times to clients and employees, who get fair payment and good working conditions.
Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: Domestic services, Labour saving solutions
Pathway to impact: Reduce, Redistribute
OneSky
Website: www.onesky.org
Headquarters: United States of America
Country of Operations: Vietnam, China, Mongolia
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman, At least 51% owned by women, At least 30% women in senior leadership positions
About the organization: Onesky is a non-profit that trains women operating daycares out of their homes in Vietnam’s industrial zones. These daycares serve children of women labouring in nearby factories who do not have access to quality care for their children. It empowers caregivers to establish a responsive relationship with children and create a safe and nurturing learning environment, thereby redistributing care and domestic work whereby young mothers leave their children in the care of onesky trainees to pursue employment or education. Onesky has trained over 75,984 caregivers and impacted 247,753 children.
Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: Child-care (Ages 1 to 5)
Activities in the care economy: Provision of technology & services that train/upskill domestic & care workers
Pathway to impact: Recognize, Reward
Oolu
Website: oolusolar.com
Headquarters: Senegal
Country of Operations: Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Cameroon
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman, At least 30% women in senior leadership positions, At least 30% of women in board of directors
About the organization: Oolu Solar is a for-profit company that provides affordable solar home systems to rural households in Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, and Burkina Faso. These solar home systems provide households with brighter, more efficient lights and in-home chargers at a small fraction of their standard monthly energy expenditure. Its products have helped reduce and eliminate the need for rural people to travel kilometers to nearby electrified villages to charge their phones. Lighting from the solar home systems allows children to study an average of one to two hours longer each night. The company has sold over 60,000 solar home systems to customers in the region. 91% of solar light users who previously used kerosene lamps experienced an improvement in their health.
Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: Domestic services
Activities in the care economy: Provision of affordable time and labour saving technology and products
Pathway to impact: Reduce
Prime Indonesia
Website: primeindonesia.id
Headquarters: Indonesia
Country of Operations: Ethiopia, Ghana, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman
About the organization: Prime Indonesia is a for-profit enterprise that produces and distributes energy-saving biomass stoves. The company serves poor people in Indonesia by providing cheaper cook stoves. It reduces the amount of time spent by women in cooking and wood collection, and saves households from spending on refilling LPG or Kerosene. In addition, prime stoves are also healthy and energy-efficient products, reducing maternal and child mortality due to smoke when cooking using traditional stoves.
Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: Domestic services
Activities in the care economy: Provision of technology, services & policies/practice that improve conditions for domestic & care worker
Pathway to impact: Reduce
PT Insan Medika Persada
Website: www.insanmedika.co.id
Headquarters: Indonesia
Country of Operations: Indonesia
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman
About the organization: Insan Medika is a for-profit enterprise that provides healthcare services for elderly and unwell patients in Indonesia, through professionally trained caregivers. Insan Medika focuses on increasing the skills of caregivers through its academy. By doing so, the company is rewarding caregivers through increased opportunities, better work conditions and increased income.
Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: Infant-care (children younger than 1-year), Child-care (Ages 1 to 5), Child-care (Ages 6 and above), Elderly-care (Ages 60 and above), Care for persons with special needs (disabled / differently abled persons), Care for people with illnesses
Activities in the care economy: Provision of technology & services that train/upskill domestic & care workers
Pathway to impact: Recognize, Reward, Redistribute
Solar Sister
Website: solarsister.org
Headquarters: United States of America
Country of Operations: Tanzania, Nigeria, Uganda
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman, At least 51% owned by women, At least 30% women in senior leadership positions, At least 30% of women in board of directors
About the organization: Solar Sister is a social enterprise that empowers women with economic opportunity and clean energy in Tanzania and Nigeria. It recruits, trains and supports women entrepreneurs to build business around clean energy. It reduces care work through increased access to cookstoves and solar lighting products in communities dependent on poor quality fuel. Solar Sister has reached out to over 3 million people in Africa with solar energy and cookstoves and kickstarted 6,690 entrepreneurs.
Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: Labour saving solutions
Activities in the care economy: Provision of affordable time and labour saving technology and products
Pathway to impact: Reduce
SweepSouth
Website: ke.sweepsouth.com
Headquarters: South Africa
Country of Operations: South Africa
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman
About the organization: SweepSouth is an online home cleaning platform that facilitates the connection between homeowners and cleaning professionals in South Africa. Within a matter of minutes, customers can book a home clean for as early as the next day. This for-profit entity has engaged over 7,000 cleaners and thousands of satisfied customers are being served monthly. On average, domestic workers receive 80% of the booking fee (plus tips) for their services.
Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: Domestic services, Labour saving solutions
Activities in the care economy: Provision of technology, services & policies/practice that improve conditions for domestic & care worker
Pathway to impact: Reward
Symplifica
Website: symplifica.com
Headquarters: Colombia
Country of Operations: Colombia, Mexico
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman
About the organization: Symplifica is an innovative platform that seeks to provide social security and extralegal benefits to domestic workers and nannies. Their mission is to offer formalization mechanisms through technological tools that allow domestic workers to improve their quality of life. Symplifica has already impacted 15k employers and generated more than 10 million USD in social security payments. They recently received USD 3 million from Open Society Foundations.
Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: Domestic services, Labour saving solutions
Activities in the care economy: Provision of technology, services & policies/practice that improve condition for domestic & care worker (e.g. apps that calculate decent remuneration)
Pathway to impact: Reward
Tiny Totos Kenya
Website: www.tinytotos.com
Headquarters: Kenya
Country of Operations: Kenya, Rwanda
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman
About the organization: Tiny Totos is a social enterprise that aims improve informal daycare by partnering with private, informal daycare entrepreneurs and delivering training and investment to upgrade standards, foster business sustainability and deliver improved care to children in Kenya and Rwanda. The enterprise redistributes care work by providing training and content on how to run profitable childcare businesses, create user-friendly childcare content that ensures child, health, development and nutrition is upheld.
Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: Infant-care (children younger than 1-year), Child-care (Ages 1 to 5)
Activities in the care economy: Provision of affordable services that provide care & domestic work
Pathway to impact: Reduce
Tu Nanny
Website: www.tunanny.com
Headquarters: Uruguay
Country of Operations: Other Countries
Women owned / led: Founded by at least one woman
About the organization: “It is a pioneering platform for childcare services recognized for its excellent and rigorous selection process of nannies and care professionals. It was founded in 2008 to select the best professionals based on innovative human resources practices and new technologies. Other services offered: Training, entertainment, and school support.
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Stage of Growth: Mass roll-out/Expansion
Types of Services: Infant-care (children younger than 1-year), Child-care (Ages 1 to 5), Child-care (Ages 6 and above)
Activities in the care economy: Provision of technology & services that train/upskill domestic & care workers (e.g. technology that links employers to domestic/care workers), Provision of technology, services & policies/practice that improve condition for domestic & care worker (e.g. apps that calculate decent remuneration)
Pathway to impact: Reduce, Reward