We’ve built a company together before.
Now we’re doing it again.
We are Lars Blicher and Rikke V. Stoltz. We have worked together for more than 15 years and have both spent many years building companies. Our shared background is in shipping and offshore wind.
Together, we built Blue Ocean Ships from the ground up with a major international ambition, leading to a successful exit to the international Swire Group.
The sale did not end our involvement. We both stayed with the company and continued to lead the growth journey we had started. With Swire as the new owner, around USD 500 million was invested in the company and in some of the world’s largest offshore wind installation vessels.
After our time with the company, it was publicly listed and renamed Cadeler. Today, Cadeler is a global leader in offshore wind installation.
Now we are building a company together again. This time, it is Nova Caring.
Inspired by the sea
Nova Caring began with something that happened in Lars' own family. His mother lived alone in Aalborg while Lars lived in Frederiksberg, and he called her every day. When she suddenly stopped answering the phone, he kept trying and eventually became so worried that he contacted the building caretaker.
His mother had suffered a stroke and had been lying on the floor for three days. She actually had a wearable alarm, but it was lying on the table. She was not wearing it when she needed it. It came very close to going seriously wrong.
Rikke knows the same concern from her own life. Her parents are in their 80s and still live independently in Slagelse, while she lives in Frederiksberg. She helps and looks after them as much as she can, but she cannot be there all the time.
We both come from shipping, where safety and systems that have to work when it matters have been part of our work for many years. We also knew the principle behind the dead man's switch, where an absence of expected activity can be a sign that something is wrong. We brought that idea with us when we began developing SoftCaring™.
Nova Caring is the company behind SoftCaring. The name SoftCaring describes quite well what we want to create: a soft blanket of safety around the home.
A home is, of course, very different from the bridge of a ship. Technology in the home should be discreet and fit naturally into everyday life. For us, it is important that you can care for someone without watching over them. Receiving help should feel comfortable, and so should giving it.
Developed in real life
SoftCaring was not developed at a desk alone. The system has been installed in real homes across Denmark for several months, while we have tested it, found bugs and fixed them along the way.
We work according to the Frederiksberg model, where new solutions become better when they are developed close to the people who will actually use them. Families have therefore been involved from the beginning, telling us what works in their everyday lives and what does not.
We are also both volunteers with Ældre Sagen's Welfare Technology Corps in Frederiksberg. Here we meet older people and their relatives and gain even more practical insight into what is easy to use, what creates a sense of security, and what people actually need.
We take that with us every time we improve SoftCaring.
Lars and Rikke
Lars Blicher
Lars is a serial entrepreneur with many years of experience in shipping, offshore wind and technology. At Nova Caring, he works particularly with strategy, technology and the development of SoftCaring.
Lars on LinkedIn
Rikke V. Stoltz
Rikke has many years of international leadership and company-building experience, including from A.P. Moller - Maersk. At Nova Caring, she works particularly with operations, product, customer experience and the development of the company.
Rikke on LinkedInWould you like to know more?
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