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Traded: Venture Capital 🦄 on Instagram: "Rhem Labs (@RhemCares), a San Francisco-based home-care robotics startup, raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding from Y Combinator, bringing its total funding to $500,000. Founded by Jacob Shen and Huey Shen, Rhem is building robots and smart hardware to help older adults and people with complex care needs live more independently at home. FUN FACT: He’s building robots for aging parents. His cofounder is his dad. Jacob and Huey Shen’s family spent nearly two decades caring for loved ones at home. They saw health changes go unnoticed and everyday tasks depend on someone else being available. Now they’re building Rhem Labs, a YC-backed startup making robots and smart hardware to help older adults and people with complex care needs live more independently at home. Meet their first two products: Rhem is a health assistant robot that combines frontier AI with a custom voice operating system built for older adults. Users can ask it to make calls, order groceries, and manage reminders, with no apps to learn. It also keeps families informed about health and daily life. The team wants it to handle anything that doesn’t need arms or legs. Halo detects falls without a watch or pendant, so there’s nothing to remember to put on. FOUNDERS: Jacob Shen (@JacobHardware) & Huey Shen INVESTOR: Y Combinator (@YCombinator) ROUND: Pre-Seed AMOUNT: $500,000 HQ: San Francisco, California #VentureCapital #RhemLabs #TradedPartner #JacobShen #TradedVC"

Source: traderVC • Published: 06 Oct 2026, 19:49

Summarized by Masters of Longevity from traderVC.

Startup funding news about a YC-backed team building voice-first home-care robots and a non-wear fall detector to support independent aging.

Traded: Venture Capital 🦄 on Instagram: "Rhem Labs (@RhemCares), a San Francisco-based home-care robotics startup, raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding from Y Combinator, bringing its total funding to $500,000. Founded by Jacob Shen and Huey Shen, Rhem is building robots and smart hardware to help older adults and people with complex care needs live more independently at home. FUN FACT: He’s building robots for aging parents. His cofounder is his dad. Jacob and Huey Shen’s family spent nearly two decades caring for loved ones at home. They saw health changes go unnoticed and everyday tasks depend on someone else being available. Now they’re building Rhem Labs, a YC-backed startup making robots and smart hardware to help older adults and people with complex care needs live more independently at home. Meet their first two products: Rhem is a health assistant robot that combines frontier AI with a custom voice operating system built for older adults. Users can ask it to make calls, order groceries, and manage reminders, with no apps to learn. It also keeps families informed about health and daily life. The team wants it to handle anything that doesn’t need arms or legs. Halo detects falls without a watch or pendant, so there’s nothing to remember to put on. FOUNDERS: Jacob Shen (@JacobHardware) & Huey Shen INVESTOR: Y Combinator (@YCombinator) ROUND: Pre-Seed AMOUNT: $500,000 HQ: San Francisco, California #VentureCapital #RhemLabs #TradedPartner #JacobShen #TradedVC"
Key Takeaways
  • Rhem Labs raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding to develop home-care robotics and smart hardware.
  • Their first product, Rhem, is a voice-first health assistant that manages calls, reminders, and errands without apps.
  • Halo is a non-wear fall-detection device designed to detect falls without requiring users to wear anything.
Read the full article at traderVC ↗

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