By Anne Servidad, Altitude Accelerator Communications Intern
As of May 2016, Altitude Accelerator client Hospital Connection officially announced the company’s acquisition by Parent Life Network (PLN), a division of Square Crop Studios. The aim of Parent Life Network is to reward Canadian families by partnering with brands like OshKosh and Ford to provide parents access to exclusive opportunities and unique contests like Canada’s Luckiest Baby (CLB).
“Together with the Parent Life Network, we are able to continue our shared vision to support even more Canadian moms, moms-to-be, and families of all shapes and sizes than either of us could alone,” states Paul Kalra, founder of Hospital Connection.
Hospital Connection began as a Toronto based start-up committed to supporting new parents and hospitals. The company delights these new families on their special moments with welcome packages containing products and coupons needed for the start of this wonderful journey. Each kit includes 24-count pack of diapers with gift cards, complete with a code for a set of redeemable vouchers at www.mymoments.ca.
Now the beauty of these kits? They’re absolutely free. In fact, these care packages are given to hospitals which can be exchanged for a small donation; therefore, raising funds to help them build stronger relationships with patients and their community.
“We wanted to ensure new parents receive everything they need. We also wanted to ensure hospitals don’t have to pay for it but could instead use this as an opportunity to fundraise. And so, Hospital Connection was established to connect hospital, patients, and brands,” explains Paul.
The idea of Hospital Connection was sparked with a personal moment—when Kalra’s sister gave birth to her first newborn. Further inspiration came from Finland where every new family is provided with a free box of baby products that they need as a means of support. And so, two kits (Mom-to-Be kit and Baby kit) were created to help new parents get through the first few hours with their newborn or even the first few days, effortlessly easing them into the first steps of parenthood.
Today, Hospital Connection distributes over 2 million baby products and offers them annually to a network of over 320 hospitals and prenatal clinics.
“Immediately following the acquisition, we will be receiving immense support and continuing to build up what we’ve been doing with the packages and also make them bigger and better than ever before,” says Paul.
Additional support also comes from the Altitude Accelerator, Kalra states:
“The Altitude Accelerator has been amazing for me, especially with the support coming from our Entrepreneur-In-Residence (EIR), James Sbrolla. His ability to navigate through any of the challenges that we were facing and his connection to the industry were invaluable. The fact that James was always available and willing to help at anytime was a great resource in itself. RIC was the main reason we got our seed funding and our follow-up funding, and it was thanks to James for all his help,”
Hospital Connection aims to be the largest fundraiser for maternal newborn programs in Canada. Together with pooled resources from Square Crop, the company will reach more families across the country thus creating a bigger impact and providing tons of support to parents—regardless of socioeconomic status or family structure.
Join Hospital Connection in extending its reach to new parents and hospitals here.
