Vermut

Vermut is a Barcelona-founded agetech company that operates a mobile app and digital platform combining a marketplace of leisure, training and social activities with a social network for older adults, targeting roughly the 55-79 age group. Users create a profile, browse and sign up for paid or partner-run activities — examples cited include meeting for a vermut, zumba classes and excursions — and can also create their own hangouts, generate content and form connections with other members. The product is designed for ease of use so that seniors can navigate it without technical barriers.

The company positions itself against social isolation and loneliness in retirement, framing its mission as empowering seniors during the years between an average European retirement age of around 60 and the onset of dependency around 80, and as countering ageism. Activity partners are given SaaS-style tools within the app to manage customers and reach an audience they do not typically address. Alongside its Spanish operations, Vermut established a US entity, Vermut Senior Community INC, incorporated in Delaware, as the base for a planned North American expansion.

Founding story

Co-founders Fernando Dellepiane and Enric Duran, who previously worked together at the delivery company Glovo, created Vermut in 2020 after observing challenges faced by their own parents. Dellepiane, originally from Argentina, has described being motivated by the way society underuses the experience and knowledge of older people and by the social acceptance of age discrimination. The founders have said they applied lean product practices and an MVP-driven approach learned at Glovo, with a focus on building around user needs.

Business model

Vermut operates as a community marketplace connecting older users with activity providers. It began with a fee-per-transaction model, charging a fee on the cost of activities offered by partner providers, and later added a subscription once the app product had matured; subscribers receive benefits and access to activities in the marketplace. Partners receive software within the app to manage their customers and grow their business on the platform. The company has stated an intention to move toward a B2B2C approach and to expand into a marketplace of products and services, while noting brand interest in the platform and caution about adding revenue streams that could affect user trust.

Mixed transaction-fee and subscription revenue: a commission on the cost of activities booked through partners, plus subscription fees paid by users for benefits and marketplace activities, with stated ambitions to add B2B2C and product/service marketplace revenue over time.

Traction

The company reported that in 2022 more than 16,000 registered users opened the app at least once a day and that more than 50,000 connections had been made on the platform.

Latest developments

In October 2022 Vermut announced a €1.5 million round led by BitKraft with Gaingels, Service Providers and Calm/Storm participating, following the Birdhouse accelerator programme in Belgium. The proceeds were earmarked for growth in the Spanish market and entry into North America, supported by the newly created Delaware entity Vermut Senior Community INC.