Switzerland is facing a structural shortage of healthcare professionals, which translates into a constant flow of absences and unfilled shifts on the ground. Building monthly schedules and handling replacements together can absorb up to 60% of a Swiss healthcare manager’s time – that’s time taken away from patients, residents and team management.
Carewell was founded in 2024 in Lausanne to fix exactly that problem. The platform helps healthcare institutions cover their staffing gaps in two steps: first by activating each institution’s own internal pool of nurses, caregivers and other professionals. And when the pool is not enough, by tapping into a marketplace of healthcare professionals who want to work flexibly. At the core of the platform sits a proprietary matching algorithm that puts the right person at the right place at the right time.
The company has grown rapidly since launch, a direct reflection of the depth of the need on the ground and of how the platform is received by the people who use it every day: healthcare managers regain time, and healthcare professionals find shifts that match how they want to work.
A bigger picture: breaking the doom loop in Swiss healthcare
The shortage of healthcare professionals is one of the most pressing challenges Western societies face today. Around 300 people leave the Swiss healthcare sector every month, and overload from staff shortages is the top burden cited across every sector of Swiss healthcare. The problem feeds itself: when shifts aren’t covered, the core team absorbs the shock, burnout rises, and more people leave — making the next shift even harder to cover.
Carewell exists to break that loop. By activating each institution’s internal staff pool first, the core team (the single strongest retention factor in Swiss healthcare) is protected from burning out covering gaps. By opening up a marketplace only when the pool isn’t enough, healthcare professionals who would otherwise leave the sector can stay in it on their own terms — with the flexibility and work-life balance Swiss nurses say they want. The platform is built to make healthcare careers more sustainable for the people who choose them, and the system as a whole more resilient.
Carewell is also a winner of all three stages of Venture Kick, grand prize winner of the 2025 PERL (Prix Entreprendre Région Lausanne), and the first ever Swiss start-up to complete the FIT Digital Grand Slam (Grant, Seed and Growth) from the Fondation pour l’Innovation Technologique (FIT).
Accelerating commercial expansion accross Switzerland
The new capital will allow Carewell to:
- accelerate its commercial expansion across Switzerland, with a particular focus on the German-speaking market;
- continue investing in its matching technology and product, including its mobile app for healthcare professionals;
- and grow the team across engineering, operations and sales.
“Swiss healthcare runs on people, and yet building schedules and managing replacements can absorb up to 60% of a manager’s time. Carewell exists to give that time back to the people who run hospitals, nursing homes and home-care services. We start by optimizing the usage of each institution’s internal staff, and only open up the wider marketplace when that isn’t enough. This round lets us bring that promise to many more institutions across Switzerland.” — Josselin Meylan, CEO & co-founder, Carewell
“Carewell attacks a serious structural problem in Swiss healthcare with a deeply credible founding team and has real traction with more than 50 institutions on the platform. The ‘Pool first, then Marketplace’ model is the right answer for this market, and the proprietary matching algorithm gives the company a defensible edge. We are proud to lead this round alongside SICTIC, Kickfund and our co-investors.” — Lucian Wagner, StartAngels Network, Zurich (lead investor)
(PR)
Carewell co-founders Josselin Meylan (CEO), Fabian Mösli (CPO & CAIO), Soazig Olivin (CHRO), Mathieu Dubois (CTO, right), with Eric Dumelin (Head of Deutschschweiz) and Liridona Sadiku (Talent Manager Deutschschweiz).
