MemoryWell raises $1M seed round

Washington, D.C.-based MemoryWell has raised a $1 million seed round led by Dagmar Dolby with participation from UsAgainstAlzheimer’s cofounder George Vradenburg, HealthTechCapital and Halcyon founder Dr. Sachiko Kuno’s S&R Fund.

Launched in 2016 by Jay Newton-Small, the startup created a network of professional journalists who interview seniors and their families. MemoryWell runs through a mobile responsive web platform where families and others can find the stories, as well as photos, music and video, Technical.ly DC previously reported. The professional writers work with families, senior living communities and home care providers to replace burdensome intake questionnaires with brief, intimate life stories that improve empathy between caregivers and elders, a press release states.

Newton-Small said this investment will help the company improve its artificial intelligence and machine learning tech, expand its team with customer success specialists and improve its core product and services.

We recently awarded MemoryWell with an honorable mention as a company to watch on our 2019 realLIST earlier this year. The company reports having a network of 700 professional writers and a client portfolio that includes Brookdale Senior Living, Clover Health and Alphabet Inc’s Medicare Advantage Plan.

This isn’t MemoryWell’s first major funding raise. In its first year, the company was bootstrapped, and then Newton-Small raised an initial seed fund of  $77,000 through a Kickstarter campaign. When the company became a featured winner of the WeWork Creator Awards,  the startup brought in $130,000 in funding, Technical.ly DC previously reported.