Care Sourcer has hired former Skyscanner senior director, Ilana Munckton, as director of growth as the company continues its scaling programme for 2019.

Munckton oversaw a period of high growth at the global online travel site that was acquired by Ctrip for £1.4 billion in 2016.

The Edinburgh-based healthtech firm develops technology that is helping to tackle the UK’s care crisis through its first comparison and matching site for elderly care.

Co-founded by Andrew McGinley and Andrew Parfery in 2016, the company has gained significant attention in the past 18 months, having secured an £8.5 million investment round in June 2018.

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McGinley said: “We are building a world-class team ad Care Sourcer and are excited to get someone as talented and with so much scale-up experience as Ilana joining us.

“We’re planning to reach 100 employees by 2020 and are looking for more startup and scale-up experts to join our talented team – from Scotland and beyond.”

Munckton joins the firm amid an exciting period for social care. In 2019, the release of a social care green paper is expected to steer how care is funded in the UK in the future.

The UK care market is estimated to be in excess of £20 billion and is facing unprecedented challenges – with daily discharge costs to the NHS of more than £2 million. According to a recent report from Age UK, more than 50,000 people have died while waiting for a care package since 2017.

“Our care matching technology is proven to make a significant impact on the challenges in social care, and we anticipate increasing attention and investment in what is such a critical societal issue,” he added.