"When people need care, it's often the most stressful moment of their lives. They shouldn't have to spend weeks trying to find help,” says Andre Smith, Co-Founder, Carevo.
For most Australians, finding aged care or NDIS support isn't something they think about until they're suddenly forced to.
A stroke, a cancer diagnosis, an unexpected hospital discharge, a new NDIS plan for a child – what follows is often the same: a fragmented system that families have to navigate at the worst possible moment.
Founded by entrepreneurs Andre Smith and Buddhika "Bud" Jayawardhana, Carevo connects families with aged care and disability providers.
The platform uses a combination of AI-powered matching and human support. Rather than spending days or weeks contacting providers one by one, families can submit a single enquiry and get services that can help.
Since launching in March 2026, Carevo has grown to more than 32,000 provider listings and reached close to two million annual run rate in its first five months, across Australia including regional and rural areas.
But while the growth is impressive, the idea behind Carevo didn't begin with technology, but with a son trying to find a place for his father to receive care.
A deeply personal problem
Nearly a decade ago, Andre's father was battling cancer when he suffered a stroke.
Suddenly, the family's focus shifted from treatment to finding somewhere he could receive respite and palliative care.
What followed was an exhausting search through a system that seemed impossible to navigate.
"It was about four weeks of trying to find the right place," Andre recalls. "The hospital was telling us we needed to leave, but my mum and I were running around Sydney trying to work out where he could go."
Every phone call led to another dead end. Some facilities had no vacancies, others weren't the right fit.
Every provider required another conversation, another assessment or another referral, all while the family was trying to spend precious time with someone they loved.
"The moment people need care is probably one of the most stressful periods of anyone's life," Andre says. "The last thing they should be worrying about is spending hours and hours researching providers."
The experience stayed with him long after his father's passing.
Years later, after speaking with friends working across aged care and disability services, Andre saw that despite significant reforms to the NDIS, the underlying challenge remained remarkably similar.
Families were still struggling to find appropriate support, and providers that had capacity were often difficult to discover.
"There had to be a better way," he says.
Building on lessons from their first startup
Andre and Bud had already built one successful technology company together. The pair first met through the Antler startup program, where they formed a partnership built on complementary strengths.
Andre's background is in product, growth and customer experience, with a strong focus on understanding users and refining every detail.
Bud brings 15 years’ experience in software engineering, including time at Coviu, the CSIRO-founded telehealth platform used by over 100,000 allied health professionals.
"I tend to look at the details," Andre says with a laugh. "Bud tends to look at the big picture."
Their first startup was ScreenApp, an AI platform that helps users record, transcribe, search and analyse video, audio and meeting content.
Operating in one of the world's most competitive AI software markets proved to be an intense learning experience.
"We made a lot of mistakes," Andre says. "Building in such a competitive market gives you a lot of scar tissue, but it also teaches you how to build companies."
Those lessons would become invaluable when the idea for Carevo emerged.
Validate before you build
Unlike many founders eager to start coding, Andre deliberately slowed down.
He wanted proof that the problem still existed before investing time and money into developing a solution.
He built a simple website, not a sophisticated platform, but a way to test whether families were actively searching for help and whether providers were willing to respond.
For several months, he observed how people interacted with the site, spoke with providers across the sector and carefully gathered feedback.
"We spent months validating the problem before we built anything," Andre says. "We wanted to make sure we really understood what people needed before writing code."
The response quickly confirmed what he'd suspected.
Families were desperately searching for support, particularly within the NDIS sector, while many providers were equally frustrated by how difficult it was for potential clients to find them.
"We didn't put significant capital into it," Andre says. "We invested our time. We wanted evidence before building a solution."
That disciplined approach shaped every decision that followed and helped the founders avoid mistakes they had made with their first startup.
A problem of trust
Although artificial intelligence powers Carevo's matching engine, Andre is quick to point out that technology is only one part of the solution.
Healthcare is fundamentally different from most online marketplaces.
Families aren't browsing products or comparing prices. They're often making urgent decisions during one of the most emotionally challenging periods of their lives.
"It's really important they're able to speak to someone quickly," Andre says.
Carevo uses AI to interpret unstructured enquiries, identify suitable providers and streamline the matching process.
But once that match is made, human connection becomes critical. Most families hear back from a provider in about ten minutes, and seven in ten within the hour.
The human element is equally important for providers.
That human layer is led by Gemma, a former support worker and NDIS family member who guides families and providers through the paperwork-heavy parts of the process.
Many smaller aged care and disability organisations struggle to compete online against larger providers with bigger marketing budgets, despite often having immediate capacity to help.
At the same time, providers are understandably cautious about businesses promising to deliver leads.
"There are a lot of bad actors in the market," Andre explains.
Carevo’s answer is to remove the incentive. Families never pay. Instead, providers pay a flat monthly subscription fee to view and contact matched enquiries, with no commission or success fee on what they earn.
Placement, ranking and badges are not for sale. “If we took a cut of the care, we’d be incentivised to send families to whoever pays most,” Andre says. “We deliberately built it so we’re not.”
Building trust, he says, requires transparency, consistent results and genuine relationships on both sides of the marketplace.
"When you're dealing with healthcare and disability services, trust has to come first," Bud adds.
Growth driven by need
Carevo's rapid growth wasn't fuelled by expensive marketing campaigns. Andre believes the growth reflects the scale of a problem affecting both families and providers.
On one side are families trying to navigate a confusing care system. On the other are smaller providers with available services who struggle to appear in online searches dominated by larger organisations.
"The pain exists on both sides," Andre says.
By connecting these two groups more effectively, Carevo creates value for everyone involved.
Some of its strongest engagement has come from regional and rural communities, where finding appropriate services is often harder than in metropolitan areas.
In these locations, helping people find the right provider quickly can have an even greater impact because options are more limited and distances are greater.
A community helping founders grow
As Carevo gathered momentum, the founders also found support through Stone & Chalk.
Both Andre and Bud have become active members of the innovation community, participating in events, connecting with other founders and drawing on the collaborative environment.
For Bud, who had spent years working remotely, joining Stone & Chalk provided something he hadn't realised he was missing.
"I found a real sense of community," he says.
"It's a place where everybody knows everyone. You can ask questions, share ideas and learn from people building businesses alongside you."
Those conversations, introductions and shared experiences have helped strengthen Carevo as the company continues to grow.
Looking ahead
Today, Andre and Bud focus primarily on Carevo, with ScreenApp continuing to operate and grow under its own dedicated team.
Increasingly, they see Carevo as where they can make their greatest impact.
Their ambition extends well beyond becoming another successful technology company. They want Carevo to become the first place Australians turn when they need aged care or disability support.
As reforms continue across both the aged care and NDIS sectors, they believe Australians will increasingly need reliable information, trusted recommendations, and fast connections to quality providers.
"We want to be the place people come when they need help," Andre says.
For Bud, it's applying everything they've learned over years of building startups to solve an important problem. For Andre, however, the mission will always remain personal.
Nearly ten years after he and his mother drove across Sydney trying to find a place for his father to receive care, he hopes no other family will have to endure that same uncertainty.
Every enquiry submitted through Carevo represents someone facing one of life's hardest moments.
With Carevo, those families will spend less time navigating the system and more time where they should be – with the people who matter to them most.
Carevo Pty Ltd (ABN 69 696 950 919) is based in Sydney and backed by Antler and UNSW Founders. It handles participant data in line with the Privacy Act 1988 and its published privacy policy.
