Mirthy graduated from Cambridge Social Ventures in March 2021.
Idea
Mirthy aims to help older adults remain active, social and connected in their community by tackling the growing issue of loneliness in later life.
Through their activities’ platform, they connect public speakers, typically retired individuals, with organisations and older adults wanting to listen to interesting and informative talks.
Until March 2020, they focussed on using live events to transform the 35,000 retirement homes in the UK into activity hubs.
In response to COVID-19, Mirthy has developed an innovative online platform for public speakers to provide remote talks to older adults in the comfort of their own homes.
Not only will this new approach provide a much-needed social antidote in this period of self-isolation, but will entertain and inform older adults as they partake in this collaborative online community.
In 2020, Mirthy won Runner Up in the £1 million Tech to Connect Challenge and have been named finalists in the AAL Smart Aging Prize.
People
Mirthy is headed up by Alex Ramamurthy. Alex has spent his career in technology startups with a focus on improving quality in later life. He also spent two years as Chief Executive of The Care Workers Charity. It was this, coupled with past experience of volunteering with Age UK, that inspired the creation of Mirthy.
Dhruv Haria is Co-founder and COO. Dhruv is an actuary and data scientist by background having also launched multiple businesses in the technology and hospitality domains.
Joel Key is the marketing guru, with extensive experience in health and social care marketing.
Chris Dowdell is the tech guy, with over 20 years of experience delivering IT projects for business like STV, Mirror Group and the NHS.
Impact
Mirthy’s mission is to bring joy and happiness to millions of older people, every single day.
The number of over-50s experiencing loneliness is set to reach two million by 2025-2026. This compares to around 1.4 million in 2016-2017 – a 49% increase in 10 years.
There are 1.2 million chronically lonely older people in the UK.
Half a million older people go at least five or six days a week without seeing or speaking to anyone at all.
As Coronavirus (COVID-19) spreads across the UK, it will be harder for people to maintain their social connections.
With the right technology Mirthy believes so much can be done to tackle loneliness and social isolation. The team are determined to develop their solution and scale to reach millions of older people, through an engaged online community and events.
Lead entrepreneur
Alex Ramamurthy
Get in touch
mirthy.co.uk
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