During the pandemic, Rustam Sengupta was living in Canada and watching from afar as his mother in Singapore struggled to support his father, who had dementia. In his family’s personal predicament, Sengupta saw a more universal problem: burnt-out families trying to connect their loved ones with quality care.
What if, Sengupta thought, there was a network that people could call on to meet the nonmedical needs of elderly or disabled family members?
That question became the impetus for Tuktu, the digital platform Sengupta created to connect those seeking support and companionship with vetted local service providers. The name comes from an Inuit word meaning caribou; legend has it that the animal acts as a guide for those lost in the snow.
An entrepreneur with a background in renewable energy, Sengupta started Tuktu in Vancouver in 2022 and has since expanded across British Columbia and to Toronto, amassing close to 9,000 users. In February, he brought Tuktu to Vermont, launching the platform that allows residents to book services such as rides to doctor’s appointments, meal prep, house cleaning and companionship, often for elderly parents or family members with disabilities. Services cost users $25 to $40 an hour, with Tuktu taking a 15 to 25 percent cut of the fee.
The platform uses artificial intelligence to recommend services and match providers with clients. Providers — often college students and recent retirees looking for part-time work — are interviewed, background-checked and trained by Tuktu.
Sengupta pointed to the epidemic of loneliness and disconnection — highlighted in a 2023 U.S. Surgeon General’s report — as a reason why services such as Tuktu are critical.
“Community-powered platforms like ours can really help reduce that,” Sengupta said.
While traditional home-care agencies such as Home Instead already exist in Vermont, Sengupta said those are based on a more traditional model: professional caregivers who work longer shifts helping people who need “more ongoing personal care.”
“Tuktu is designed for the many needs that fall outside that model: one hour of companionship, a ride to an appointment, help with groceries, light household tasks, tech help, a weekly check-in or support after surgery,” Sengupta explained.
Tuktu aims to connect those seeking support
and companionship with vetted local service providers.
Sengupta and his family moved to South Burlington last summer when his wife, Helina Jolly, an assistant ecology professor, landed a job at the University of Vermont. Since then, Sengupta has been working to get Tuktu off the ground here while also serving as a lecturer at UVM’s business school. Besides Sengupta, the company has 11 employees — five in Canada, five in Sri Lanka and one in the United States.
Seed money for Tuktu’s Vermont expansion included $100,000 from an investment fund run by the nonprofit Center on Rural Innovation, in partnership with the Vermont Economic Development Authority, and matching dollars from a private wealth-management firm. Since February, 300 Vermonters have signed up for the app and 30 have booked services, some of them multiple times. About 25 have been hired as service providers, mostly in Chittenden County. Sengupta is hopeful the platform will be used throughout the state by the end of the summer.
With its aging population and community-minded ethos, Vermont appears to be the “perfect place” for Tuktu, Sengupta said. An estimated 23 percent of residents are 65 or older and more than a quarter of them live alone, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. One in four adult Vermonters provides unpaid care for family members, according to the AARP.
Melissa Merkel-Dallaryan, the Center on Rural Innovation’s impact investing manager, said the platform is an ideal fit for Vermont. Before investing in the company, she saw Sengupta pitch Tuktu at LaunchVT — an accelerator for Vermont-based startups — and was impressed by his track record in Canada and his vision for the future.
“This is a thing that doesn’t exist here, [and] the need is very obvious,” Merkel-Dallaryan said. She thinks the easy-to-use platform where people can “book on demand, like Uber,” is well suited for Vermont, where many people live in rural areas far from services.
About a third of Tuktu’s providers are college students; a third are recent retirees; and a final third are people who have built careers in a service-oriented profession such as teaching or nursing. The work isn’t meant to be a full-time job, Sengupta said. Instead, providers commit to between six and 16 hours of work a week.
Several Tuktu users and service providers in Canada shared their experience with Seven Days. Cheryl Hutchko of Toronto signed up in 2023 for occasional help with her now-95-year-old mother, who lives in a retirement home. She books a care provider a few times a month, usually for just an hour at a time, to make her mom tea and cookies in the afternoon or help her get ready for bed.
The service is reliable, Hutchko said, and when she’s busy or traveling, it’s comforting to know someone is checking on her mom.
Michael Ip, a social worker at a residential facility for seniors on Vancouver Island, helps about 25 of his residents book Tuktu services, ranging from rides to medical appointments to trips to the movies. Ip said the technology that powers Tuktu enables him to make multiple appointments easily and the price is reasonable. He also likes that users of the service can easily provide feedback online.
Joyce Penner of Victoria, British Columbia, has been a provider for Tuktu for about nine months. Penner, a 70-year-old piano teacher, most often serves as a “travel companion,” driving elderly people to doctor’s appointments and other outings. One client’s family hired her to take him to the gym several days a week and assist him as he exercised; she recently had a first-time client whom she accompanied to the beach.
“All she wanted to do was walk on the beach in her bare feet … and she was in bliss,” Penner said. “There’s a lot of gratification in brightening up someone’s day.”
In Vermont, Emery Guzyk, a first-year student at UVM, started working for Tuktu several months ago. She learned about the company through an employment website when she was looking for flexible work that would help her get out into the greater Burlington community. She’s provided housekeeping, meal prep and companionship services that have allowed her to make connections with people she wouldn’t normally meet, she said. She’s recommended Tuktu to friends who are looking for work but are unable to commit to the longer shifts that a typical job requires.
Susan Wilson, a Washington County resident who recently retired from a career in higher education, was also looking for a part-time gig when she came across Tuktu on LinkedIn. At first, she wasn’t sure if it was legitimate, she said, but when she attended a Tuktu-sponsored meet and greet, she was impressed with the company’s values. So far, most of Wilson’s jobs have been housekeeping for younger families, but she’s hoping that, as Tuktu’s user base expands, she’ll be able to sign up for more work focused on gardening or companionship for seniors.
Gena Grover of Shelburne found Tuktu when she was looking for a friendly community member who could chat with her 92-year-old mom, Genny Hazard, about history or books and take her on occasional outings to Shelburne Museum or the library. It was easy to sign up, Grover said, and she liked that she didn’t need to commit to a minimum number of hours per week.
In April, Grover did a trial run, accompanying her mom to a local café to meet a Tuktu provider so she could get a sense of what a companionship service would be like. She was surprised when Sengupta himself showed up — he is pitching in to provide occasional services as the company finds its footing in Vermont. Grover said she was impressed by his friendliness and ability to put her mom at ease. The experience prompted her to post on Front Porch Forum recommending the service. In the past several months, Grover has booked Tuktu services a few more times.
Sengupta is hoping similarly positive word of mouth will help Tuktu catch on. He’s been holding information sessions in other parts of the state, tabling at conferences, and exploring partnerships with organizations including hospitals, senior living facilities and Age Well, an agency that connects the elderly to services in northwestern Vermont. Despite his digital platform, Sengupta sees his mission as fundamentally low-tech.
“At its core,” Sengupta said, “it is about neighbors helping neighbors.” ➆
The original print version of this article was headlined “Customized Care | A “community-powered” app aims to connect those in need with local service providers”
This article appears in June 10 • 2026.
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