AIBŌ – a platform connecting university students with elderly people through paid companionship, founded by King’s College London student Solene Declas. Tackling loneliness among older generations and the financial pressures facing students, Solene’s ambition is to create a national network of students delivering companionship as a service.

Your social enterprise provides a service where students connect with the elderly to combat loneliness… Where did you get the concept for your business? 

The idea was inspired by having my own grandparents who live at the back of our garden and still do! It made me realise how many older people don’t have this luxury and are completely alone, and I thought there must be a way to solve it. 

How much of a problem is loneliness amongst the elderly? 

The loneliness crisis has now been described as an epidemic and has been found to have severe effects on people’s health, wellbeing, and even longevity. Currently in the UK, approximately 1.4 million older people report feeling lonely, and over 270,000 go a week without speaking to friends or family (Age UK).

The benefits for the elderly are apparent, but what do you feel the young people gain from the experience? 

The young people get to hear stories from someone who’s lived a full life, full of wisdom and perspective. AIBŌ also matches people based on career aspirations, so an ideal match might be a student training to be a teacher paired with someone who used to teach. It’s almost like having a mentor, but it also gives the older person an opportunity to feel valued and needed again.

How will you fund the business operations? What is the revenue model? 

So currently, the customer (family of the end-user, or older person using the service) pays 22.50p/hr, and the ‘Buddy’ (young person) receives £15p/hr. AIBŌ retains approximately £3.75/hr per Buddy after VAT.

How will you raise awareness for the service? 

We plan to partner with universities across the UK, which has already proven successful, and market AIBŌ to customers via Facebook Ads targeting people aged 45 to 65 with elderly relatives. We’ll also run social media campaigns to capture what AIBŌ means, bringing fun, young energy back into someone’s life. We plan to build campaigns around these concepts and through wider social change movements.

How did you develop the technical interface to match each person? 

I actually met an amazing guy in a café one day in Portsmouth. We got chatting about what we were both working on. It turned out he’s a full-stack engineer at a successful start-up that matches people with ideal jobs. He said that he believed in the idea and wanted to help me, so he’s currently building AIBŌ’s matching algorithm, and we’re working on the future app.

How will you monitor performance and satisfaction? 

Once our app is built, we plan to include a questionnaire that asks the family, the older person, and the young ‘Buddy’ a series of wellbeing and health questions at the start, followed by monthly check-ins to see how things change over time. This will help us spot patterns and really understand the mechanisms behind how AIBŌ benefits people. We’re also in early talks with universities that have expressed interest in measuring AIBŌ’s impact in a research context.

What goals have you set for your business? 

By 2028, I want AIBŌ to be partnered with every university in the UK, supporting us in student sign-ups (as students will be a large proportion of ‘Buddies’), and to have over 10,000 customers actively on the platform.

Have you considered celebrity endorsements or brand champions to raise awareness? 

I think a mix of younger influencers interacting with some of our older customers and asking them questions about their lives could be really impactful. This would show that AIBŌ is for everyone and reinforce that we match Buddies based on interests and personality to help create genuine friendships.

Do you feel the government has done enough to tackle the problem of loneliness? 

I think the government has done a good job of raising awareness that loneliness is a serious issue, but awareness alone isn’t enough. Real change will come when we start connecting younger and older generations in everyday life, when hanging out with an older person feels no different from spending time with a mate, just with a few more stories and just as much joy. Only then can we create genuine connection, purpose, and belonging across ages.