A serial entrepreneur has revealed the life-changing event that sparked the launch of healthtech start-up Thriving AI – and the reason why she plans to move her business from Middlesex to Manchester by the end of 2025.
As part of Prolific North’s continuing GRAFT series, we’re digging into Northern tech to shine a spotlight on regional challenges and opportunities. So meet Shain Khoja: a founder who sees the North’s potential for growing her AI business.
As a physio with a 10-year stint working in the NHS, Khoja’s career journey has been anything but conventional. And that includes her pioneering work in Afghanistan for telecom provider Roshan Community, the social impact arm of Roshan, founded by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development.
“We built the largest telecoms operator that created 40,000 jobs. 20% of them were women and we represented 6% of the GDP of Afghanistan,” Shain Khoja tells Prolific North. She soon realised the provider could have an even greater impact by expanding its outreach to help the wider Afghan population.
“My role in Afghanistan was to use technology for social good. I built telemedicine in 2006 to 2007, brought in Vodafone and M-PESA, financial inclusion, and gave one laptop per child for e-learning.”
As a long-distance carer for her parents and in-laws, it was there that she discovered the power of technology and why it “doesn’t replace human touch”.
“I told him to break the door down”
On what was meant to be a momentous day, Khoja was en route to Toronto to receive a lifetime achievement award for her groundbreaking work in Afghanistan.
Excitement was instead replaced with dread as she frantically tried to get in touch with her mother in between connecting flights.
“When I landed, I phoned the concierge and I said: ‘Look, I can’t get hold of my mum. Have you seen her?’ They hadn’t, so I asked them to check. They said they could hear her inside but she wasn’t opening the door. I begged them to break the door down.”
The discovery was devastating. Her mother had fallen and been alone for nine long hours before a member from the concierge team found her.
“It changed her life and my life. No one should have to go through that.”
In the days and months following the fall, her mother went from having a full ability to drive, complete voluntary work, shop, clean or cook for herself to full-time dependency on Khoja and other caregivers. “I could afford to do that. But for the majority of people, for whom AI is designed, they can’t afford that, right?”
“As I rehabbed her back to good health, people kept calling me and asking how they could do the same. I was somebody that knew healthcare and social care, and I could manage, but they didn’t.”
It became the “driving force” behind the launch of Thriving AI as she started looking into the support available for care-giving families and the quality of care for older adults. “I realised we need to change this, because the tech exists,” she explains.
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Now, she has developed a digital platform delivering data-driven connected care, social engagement, and medical and daily activity monitoring. Thriving AI incorporates a care plan, allowing entries and updates in real-time to improve the care experience.
“We’re essentially building a circle of care around older adults. They can regularly communicate through the platform about their mental wellbeing and general health so you can pick up on a downturn and mitigate that risk so they don’t get so bad that they end up calling an ambulance, going into hospital or occupying a bed.”
“I hope to have offices set up in Manchester by the end of 2025”
Recently teaming up with social marketing and behavioural change agency Social Sense to fuel Thriving AI’s next phase of growth, she has grand ambitions for the business, and it all starts in Manchester.
“I hope to have offices set up in Manchester before the end of the year,” she says. “Manchester is a very thriving ecosystem. Not only is the investor base and the start-up support base very active but the likes of Manchester Foundation Trust or the Liverpool NHS are thinking progressively when it comes to healthcare.”
Recently taking part in the Manchester-based AI accelerator programme Turing Innovation Catalyst (TIC), it was a turning point in the future direction for Thriving AI.
“My relationship with Social Sense and attending the Turing Innovation Catalyst programme was a stepping stone to setting up offices there because I can really see that it’s an ecosystem where we can create jobs, impact the lives of older adults, and improve delivery of care generally for this group.”
“I’ve been on a couple of accelerators but this accelerator was by far one of the best that I’ve been on. The mentors had real-world experience, they built companies, they’d exited companies, they’d failed companies. That real-world advice, content, and camaraderie meant people were willing to help and open doors for each other.”
But for a solo founder juggling care-giving responsibilities, she admits that it’s been an “extremely difficult” experience.
“With constant responsibility, if something dramatic happens you’ve got to drop everything. It doesn’t matter if it’s a customer call or an investor call. As the founder, you’re also juggling cash all the time, right? Having that financial worry is also a really huge burden. I think a lot of investors don’t get this area because they’re not exposed to it on a day-to-day basis.”
Now eyeing Manchester for expansion, Khoja is on the hunt for new sector partnerships and has grand plans to add to the platform’s evidence base through larger trials. And the timing has never been more important as the NHS stands at a ‘tipping’ point.
“No matter how many beds and care homes we build, we cannot accommodate 20% of our population in institutions – and they don’t want to be there. 90% of them want to age in place in their communities, and feel included.
“That’s our ultimate mission, to bring everybody around the older person, to support them, and then use the data that’s collected to ensure that they stay healthy and remain independent.”
