GetSetUp, a Utah-based fastest growing social learning and engagement platform for older adults, has raised $10 million in new funding led by Lee’s Cowboy Ventures and LightShed Ventures.
Founded in 2020 by Lawrence Kosick and Neil Dsouza, GetSetup provides a digital hub for seniors with hundreds of class offerings that range from staying fit to learning tech skills or hobbies. The platform’s live interactive classes are taught in bite-sized hour-long sessions that offer learners a chance to engage live with peers and ask questions. Peer classes boost confidence, foster shared knowledge, and allow for common reference to facilitate learning.
GetStUp is on a mission to help the third of the world’s population who are over 55 to learn new skills , connect with others and unlock new life-experience. Olders adults have incredible knowledge to share and new mountains (literally and figuratively) to climb.
Talking about the company, Co-founder of GetStUp, Neil Dsouza, said, “Everywhere after you hit the age of 65, health insurance providers, both privatized and public, want to reduce the cost of care, and so they want you to go to the gym and stay active. Besides recreational and knowledge-based classes, GetSetup includes courses for cardio workouts and dieting. The social component of taking classes together.”
Dsouza further added, “We realized that there was no real place for our parents to hang out online. Now, we have Americans who get on in the middle of the night to take classes with somebody in [Australia’s] Bondi Beach doing yoga on the beach.”
“The company has also signed deals with senior living communities and the healthcare programs of several US states—including Michigan’s Medicaid program and New York’s Department of Aging—and countries. Individual users can also access a limited free version of GetSetup, or pay a fee (currently $20 per month) to access all courses and features. About 10% of the user base is on a “paid” subscription, and more than half of users are based outside the United States”, he said.
The startup helps over 3 million older adults in 160 countries stay mentally and physically fit, creates economic opportunities through jobs and reskilling, and also provides a community where people find meaning and purpose by helping each other and forming new connections.
Last year in October, GetSetUp had raised an $11 million seed round led by EdTech investing firm Rethink Education with participation from Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures. The company is also announcing a new partnership with healthcare firm Tivity Health that will make GetSetup free for 18 million Americans who are enrolled in more than 70 eligible Medicare health insurance plans.
