With India’s old population continuously increasing, a new generation of young businesses is attempting to appeal to senior persons by offering a diverse range of personalised products and services. Holiday packages, leisure items, and career platforms for retirees are also included.
Ratan Tata and Niranjan Hiranandani have made an investment in Goodfellows, a senior companionship firm launched by Tata’s protege Shantanu Naidu. Goodfellows had already created a lot of interest by registering 800 young people who wanted to be caretakers or companions to the 20-odd elderly.
Arthur D’Mello, a retired lawyer, was linked with another lawyer, Gargi, who assisted the 86-year-old in drafting legal letters to be addressed to entities all over the world. Goodfellows, situated in Mumbai, is one of a small but growing number of elderly-focused firms attracting investment interest.
The old population in India is expected to grow to 320 million by 2050, up from roughly 138 million in 2021, and the estimated 138 million elderly persons in India presently account for about 10% of the country’s population.
Ashiana Housing, by no means a startup, was fast to capitalise on this need, setting a sort of blueprint for future enterprises entering the senior housing industry.
The publicly traded New Delhi-based real estate developer now offers five senior-living projects in the NCR, Lavasa near Pune, and Chennai, with independent unit prices ranging from Rs 40 lakh to Rs 1.6 million. Athulya, too, provides residences for older populations, usually on lease, but it also provides a variety of additional services, such as nursing and palliative care.
Athulya intends to use the funds raised to grow throughout South India over the next two years, managing at least 2,500 assisted living beds and supporting over 50,000 senior people. SeniorWorld, which provides elder-friendly mobile phones and safety gadgets, also sells geriatric vacation packages.
WisdomCircle, which specialises in helping retirees find work, has collaborated with sixty-five organisations, which includes Tata Hitachi and Mahindra Group, in addition to non-profits Dhwani Foundation and Teach for India.
