Friends William and Peter both have experience of caring for loved ones and both experienced difficulty and unexpected complications when trying to help their elders. They knew there had to be a safer way to organise money for housekeeping and letting the family and care agencies have transparency of where the money was needed and how best it is used.

Their answer was Carercard - a Mastercard® prepaid card, the concept was straight forward however to make this work Hestian Group’s William Annandale and Peter Hayes had to secure funding to support this project. They used technologies available to make the prepayment card smarter and seamless and usable across a wide group from family members to paid care givers – multiple users using one account to support the independence of a loved one. This new service means that any shopping, housekeeping or bill paying can be done in a safer and more transparent way through a secure web-app for verified users.

Hestian was awarded The Proof of Concept ERDF Grant delivered by Coventry University Enterprises in early 2019. Hestian used the grant to support the expert legal and regulatory advice to ensure the payment system works and they were adhering to the compliance standards. Carercard is currently on controlled trial through a small number of care agencies but will be more widely available later in 2020. It has already started attracting clients, receiving some great feedback and has received interest from larger care organisations. To find out more, please visit www.Carercard.com

Hestian Group’s CEO, and a Co-founder, William Annandale said ‘the CUE Business Solution’s Proof of Concept support really helped us get into technical trials early. We were able to access expert professional advisers on issues across data handling and compliance. CUE has helped Carercard happen” as CEO Annandale puts it. “Our name comes from the goddess Hestia who was the one who looked after the home and hearth and kept the house going. We’ll use this boost from CUE Business Solution’s Proof of Concept funding to be a growing part of the vital care sector, with services to reduce stress and cost.”

If you think your business could benefit for a proof of Concept ERDF Grant or would like to know more information about the range of grants and business support programmes provided by CUE Business Solutions please contact ccolbyjohnson@cad.coventry.ac.uk or visit www.cuebusinesssolutions.com

If you are an eligible SME from Coventry and Warwickshire or Greater Birmingham & Solihull, grants up to £10,000 are available to support external expenditure related to prototype development, IP due diligence and protection, market research and analysis, business plan development, and other proof of concept feasibility study activities.

_{The Hestian Carercard Prepaid Mastercard is issued by Prepaid Financial Services Limited pursuant to a license from Mastercard International Incorporated.}