MATTER announces third annual Accelerating Innovation in Aging winner

RubyWell takes home grand prize of $10K with solution helping unpaid caregivers achieve financial stability

December 10, 2024, CHICAGO, IL — MATTER, the premier healthcare incubator and innovation hub, has announced the winner of the third annual Accelerating Innovation in Aging program. Supported by RRF Foundation for Aging, Next50 and the Samuels Foundation, the program recognized RubyWell as this year’s winner. RubyWell is a startup dedicated to helping unpaid family caregivers achieve financial stability by offering access to training and compensation for the care they provide to aging loved ones. The company received the grand prize of $10,000.

“Participating in the MATTER accelerator was such a great opportunity to meet other entrepreneurs building solutions to support family caregivers, and to receive excellent feedback on our business model, and support in adjusting our pitch, from the MATTER, RFF Foundation for Aging, Next50 and Samuels Foundation teams,” Julie Kennedy, CEO and co-founder of RubyWell said. “We are so grateful for the work that MATTER, RFF Foundation for Aging, Next50 and Samuels Foundation are doing in this space, and to have access to both their teams and to the resources available through the MATTER complimentary 6 month membership, is a huge resource for RubyWell. The award will go towards supporting our family caregivers.”

Launched in October 2024, the program invited innovators with solutions that help people navigate caregiving and improve caregiver well-being. Chosen from a pool of applicants across the U.S., the seven finalists participated in a four-week sprint consisting of mentoring and pitch practice with healthcare experts prior to pitching their solutions at the virtual pitch day on December 5, 2024.

The pitch event included a panel discussion on innovation in caregiving with Osvaldo Montelongo, founder and CEO of ConnectCareHero, Abigail Weiss, social worker at Weill Cornell Medicine, and Carrie Zwiebel Bloss, executive director of Heights & Hills.

Winner of the 2024 Accelerating Innovation in Aging challenge and recipient of the $10,000 Grand Prize

RubyWell Inc. — New York, NY:
RubyWell helps unpaid family caregivers maintain financial stability by providing access to training and payment for the care they provide to aging loved ones. By mobilizing family caregivers to become certified Home Health Aides, RubyWell empowers them to get paid for delivering Medicare Part B home health services to their loved one at home, while on the industry side, they augment an extremely overstretched labor pool. RubyWell’s data models support care recipient eligibility, streamline burdensome regulatory and reporting requirements and create more efficiency, reducing costs in a home health environment of contracting margins.

Other finalists

Avanlee Care — Billings, MT:
Avanlee Care is a healthcare tech company that supports and empowers informal caregivers, helping them save time and maintain their health. They partner with health plans to provide incentives for supporting caregivers while leveraging caregivers to address challenges faced by health plans. By placing caregivers at the forefront, they ensure comprehensive support that benefits both caregivers, health plans and patients. Avanlee Care is the first and only caregiving platform to fully integrate with Walmart and Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs, offering affordable groceries, over-the-counter products and prescription medications through the platform available in all 50 states.

DiscoTech Abilities — Atlanta, GA:
DiscoTech Abilities is a disability tech development company dedicated to creating simple and innovative products for niche challenges in the special needs community. Their flagship product, the Disco Diaper, targets adult and older adult incontinence by eliminating nighttime leakage, cutting diaper-changing time by 80 percent, and offering a more cost-effective option than traditional products. The Disco Diaper is designed for easy use by both independent wearers and caregivers, prioritizing comfort and convenience without relying on complex technology. DiscoTech Abilities is committed to improving daily life through practical, user-friendly products.

Kintently — Grants Pass, OR:
Kintently is on a mission to be the world’s largest destination for caregiver wisdom and insight. They’ve developed easy-to-use digital apps that proactively guide families through the complexities of aging in place, starting with their proprietary InPlace Score™ to measure family wellbeing. Their artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools plus both peer and expert resources are designed to lighten the load for caregivers, ultimately enhancing the quality of life for both those providing care and their loved ones receiving it.

Legacy — San Diego, CA:
Legacy is transforming the end-of-life care landscape by integrating Advance Care Planning (ACP) into the patient journey through AI-assisted care coordination. Every year, the U.S. healthcare system spends $700 billion on non-beneficial end-of-life care that fails to align with patient wishes, leading to unnecessary procedures, extended hospital stays and financial strain on health systems. Legacy’s platform addresses this by guiding compassionate ACP conversations, distilling key patient values, generating accurate, billable notes and seamlessly integrating decisions into electronic medical records.

The Sandwich Club — San Francisco, CA:
Caregivers today face thousands of decisions with little support and guidance, from planning for the future to navigating the day-to-day. The Sandwich Club is a digital membership that answers caregivers’ questions, big and small. It combines specialized AI responses with a community of peers who offer tips and insights based on their own experiences, empowering caregivers to make decisions with confidence. The mission of The Sandwich Club is to give caregivers back time and joy, and be their go-to resource for all their care needs.

ThriveLink — Saint Louis, MO:
ThriveLink develops telephonic AI enrollment agents that empower families to verbally complete and submit applications for safety net and healthcare programs without requiring internet access or a smartphone. Available in 75 languages, ThriveLink has delivered twice the engagement rates compared to other solutions, making it a leading platform for connecting all populations to critical resources and support.

About MATTER
At MATTER, we believe collaboration is the best way to improve healthcare. The MATTER collaborative includes more than 1,000 current and alumni startups from around the world, working together with dozens of hospitals and health systems, universities and industry-leading companies to build the future of healthcare. Together we are accelerating innovation, advancing care and improving lives. For more information, visit matter.health and follow @MATTERhealth.

About RRF Foundation for Aging
For more than 45 years, RRF Foundation for Aging, formerly The Retirement Research Foundation, has been funding programs that support older adults. The Foundation has awarded more than 5,000 grants worth more than $250 million — all dedicated to improving the quality of life for all of us as we age. RRF’s grantmaking focuses on four priority areas — caregiving, economic security in later life, housing, and social and intergenerational connectedness. These issues are fundamental to allowing all of us to age where we want to and how we want to. RRF was one of the first private foundations to focus exclusively on aging issues, and continues to support a range of advocacy, direct service, research, training, and organizational capacity-building efforts, both in Illinois and nationally. Learn more at www.rrf.org.

About Next50
Next50 is a Colorado-based national foundation that works toward a society that values aging and makes growing older an empowering, fulfilling experience. Today, our systems in the U.S. don’t prioritize our economic well-being as we age, which causes widespread economic hardship for older adults and their families. That’s why we focus on funding innovative and equitable programs that create economic opportunity for older adults, especially in low-income communities and communities of color. We fund programming in three key areas: ending age-related bias and discrimination; advancing digital equity so technology is available to all; and making it possible for people to age where they want to live.

About Samuels Foundation
The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation’s (the Samuels Foundation) Healthy Aging Program supports patient-based and social service activities that directly improve the quality of life of the elderly of New York City. Its aim is to improve the way health and social services are delivered by providing support for innovative, effective, efficient and caring organizations. For more information, visit www.samuels.org.