During the pandemic, Rustam Sengupta was living in Canada, watching from afar as his mother in Singapore struggled to support his father, who suffered from dementia. In her family’s personal predicament, Sengupta saw a universal problem: burned-out families trying to connect their loved ones to quality care.
What ifSengupta thought, Is there a network people can call on to meet the non-medical needs of elderly or disabled family members?
That question became the impetus for Tuktu, created to connect Sengupta, support and companionship seekers with verified 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 launched Ductu in Vancouver in 2022 and has since amassed 9,000 users in British Columbia and Toronto. In February, he brought Tuktu to Vermont, launching a platform that allows residents to book services like doctor’s appointments, meal preparation, house cleaning and companionship, often for elderly parents or family members with disabilities. The services cost users $25 to $40 an hour, with Tuktu taking a 15 to 25 percent cut of the fee.
The site uses artificial intelligence to recommend services and match providers with customers. Providers — mostly college students and recent retirees looking for part-time work — go through an interview, background check and training.
Sengupta pointed to the epidemic of isolation and disconnection highlighted in a 2023 US Surgeon General’s report.
“Community-powered platforms like ours can really help reduce that,” Sengupta said.
While traditional home-care agencies like Home Instead already exist in Vermont, Sengupta said they are based on a more traditional model: professional caregivers working long shifts helping people who need “more personal care.”
“Duktu is designed for many needs that come out of that model: An hour of companionship, a ride to an appointment, help with groceries, light housework, technical assistance, a weekly check-in or post-surgery support,” explained Sengupta.
Tuktu aims to connect support seekers
and partnering with verified local service providers.
Sengupta and his family moved to South Burlington last summer when his wife, Helena Jolly, took a job at the University of Vermont, assistant professor of ecology. Since then, Sengupta has been working to land Duktu here while 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 US.
Seed money for Tuktu’s Vermont expansion included $100,000 from an investment fund run by the nonprofit Center for Rural Innovation, along 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 reserved services, some of them multiple times. About 25 people are employed as service providers, mostly in Chittenden County. Sengupta hopes to have the platform rolled out across the state by the end of the summer.
With its aging population and community-minded ethos, Vermont seems like “the perfect place” for Duktu, Sengupta said. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 23 percent of residents are 65 or older and a quarter of them live alone. According to AARP, one in four adult Vermonters provide unpaid caregiving to family members.
Melissa Merkel-Dallarian, impact investment manager at Rural Innovations, said the site is a perfect fit for Vermont. Before investing in the company, Sengupta saw the pitch at LaunchVD — a Vermont-based accelerator for startups — and was impressed by its track record in Canada and its vision for the future.
“It’s something that’s not here, [and] The need is very obvious,” Merkel-Dallaryan said. She thinks an easy-to-use platform where people can “book on demand like Uber” is a good fit for Vermont, where many people live in rural areas.
A third of Tuktu providers are college students; A third are recent retirees; and the final third worked in service-based occupations such as teaching or nursing. Sengupta said the job should not be a full-time job. Instead, providers work six to 16 hours per week.
Many Tuktu users and service providers in Canada have shared their experience Seven days. Cheryl Hutchko of Toronto signed up in 2023 for occasional help with her 95-year-old mother, who lives in a retirement home. She books a care provider a few times a month, usually for an hour, to prepare tea and cookies for her mother in the afternoon or to help her get ready for bed.
The service is reliable, and Hatchko said it’s comforting to know someone is checking on her mom when she’s busy or on the go.
Michelle Ipe, a social worker at a seniors’ residential facility on Vancouver Island, helps 25 of her residents book Tuktu services, 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 wants users of the service to be able to easily provide feedback online.
Joyce Benner of Victoria, British Columbia has been delivering Tuctu for about nine months. Benner, a 70-year-old piano teacher, often works as a “travel companion,” taking elderly people to doctor’s appointments and other trips. A client’s family hired her to take him to the gym several days a week and help him while he worked out; She recently had a first-time client with whom she went to the beach.
“All she wanted to do was walk on the beach in her bare feet…she was in bliss,” Benner said. “There’s a lot of satisfaction in brightening someone’s day.”
Emery Guzyk, a first-year student at UVM in Vermont, started working at Tuktu several months ago. She learned about the company through an employment website while looking for flexible work that would help her move into the greater Burlington community. She provided housekeeping, meal preparation and companionship services, which allowed her to connect with people she wouldn’t normally meet, she said. She recommends Tuktu to friends who are looking for work but can’t handle the long shifts a regular job requires.
Recently retired from higher education, Washington County resident Susan Wilson was looking for a part-time job when she found Tuktu on LinkedIn. At first, she wasn’t sure if it was legit, but when she attended a Tuktu-sponsored meet-and-greet event, she was impressed by the company’s values. So far, most of Wilson’s work has been home care for younger families, but as Tuktu’s user base expands, she hopes she can sign up for more jobs that focus on gardening or companionship for seniors.
Jeana Grover of Shelburne discovered Tuktu when she was looking for a friendly community member to take her on occasional outings to the Shelburne museum or library to chat with her 92-year-old mother, Jenny Hazard, about history or books. Signing up was easy, Grover said, and she liked not being required to commit to a minimum number of hours per week.
In April, Grover took a test run, visiting a local cafe with her mom to meet a Tuktu provider so she could get a feel for what a companion service would be like. She was surprised when Sengupta showed up—he’d been pitching in to offer occasional services as the company gained a foothold in Vermont. Grover said she was impressed by his friendliness and ability to put his mother at ease. The experience prompted her to post on a battle forum before recommending the service. Over the past several months, Grover has booked Tuktu services a few more times.
Sengupta also hopes that similar positive word of mouth will help Duktu catch on. He holds information sessions in other parts of the state, tables at conferences and explores partnerships with hospitals, senior living facilities and organizations including Age Well that connect older adults to services in northwestern Vermont. Despite his digital platform, Sengupta sees his work as fundamentally low-tech.
“At its core, it’s about neighbors helping neighbors,” Sengupta said. ➆
The original print version of this article was “Personalized care | “Community-powered” app aims to connect people in need with local service providers”
This article appears on June 10 • 2026.
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