But there is a silver lining to this cloudy forecast.

The pandemic exposed the breadth and scope of the caregiving crisis, but it also demonstrated that the care economy presents an untapped wellspring of opportunity. For too long we’ve ignored care, but now American families are ready to spend on the products and services they’ve needed for decades. We need to turn our investment and innovation attention toward this pent-up demand.

New data shows that such investments are not just the right thing to do, they’re good business for investors with the foresight and fortitude to seize the moment.

The Investor’s Guide to the Care Economy, a new report by The Holding Co.— the care innovation lab I co-founded— and Pivotal Ventures, Melinda French Gates’ investment and incubation company, explored the dynamism and growth in care.

As we lay out in the report, the care economy is the money we put into caring for people—from infancy to old age. We’re talking about child care, yes. But we’re also talking about all the other work it takes to keep a family afloat—from grocery shopping and cooking to cleaning and coordinating—as well as the products and services that help older adults age well and support loved ones with chronic illnesses and disabilities.

The care economy touches us at every stage of life, so it’s no wonder it’s so large. How big? Amazingly, $648 billion big—$138 billion larger than the pharmaceutical industry. But because of this long-standing assumption and exploitation, care has been a vacuum for innovation.

While the nonprofit and government sectors are critical, the private sector has an equally critical role to play in building a modern care system.

Leveraging data from a wide range of sources, including over 10,000 participants, the report amplified consumer demands and translated them into actionable insights on how and where investments can be made by investors, businesses and policymakers.

It also clearly demonstrated that these aren’t just the investments our families and communities need, but smart investments—period. Take the household, where American families across income levels are willing and ready to spend on care-related activities and chores at home, presenting a $217 billion opportunity.

Employers are also realizing care is serious business.

We now have ample evidence that companies that take their employees’ care responsibilities seriously have a more productive workforce with far greater loyalty. In a moment where employers are competing for the best talent, this is a no brainer. In fact, 42 percent of employers plan to expand or add care as an employee benefit.

Child care, the sector most typically associated with care, is on the brink of a major overhaul. This $136 billion market is about to see an influx of funding thanks to pandemic-era legislation while a range of compelling start-ups are stepping up to better integrate technology into child care.

These start-ups are doing it all—from figuring out how to take the friction out of becoming a child care provider (our supply is disastrously low) to helping parents find a child care solution that fits with their needs. If the demand wasn’t already enough, layer on the fact that investing in early childhood has profound societal benefits, with quality programs having the potential to yield a $4-$9 return for every dollar invested.

And on the other end of the life cycle, even before so many of our aging relatives were trapped in unsafe and isolating conditions during the height of the pandemic, many people were trying to figure out how to age-in-place. Now there is a nationwide call for rethinking where we spend our final years and how the services and support that used to be supplied through aging facilities are remapped onto our homes.

According to the data collected, there is a $151 billion opportunity to help older adults thrive on their own terms—things like AI and telehealth of course, but also services that support companionship and community.

Entrepreneurs, investors and innovators—the time is now for you to step up as champions and pioneers of the care economy.

We’re facing a silver tsunami with the term “Baby Boomer” increasingly becoming a misnomer while technology advances by leaps and bounds to meet their appetite for longevity. Meanwhile, the sandwich generation is reinventing work—and care will be a big part of that. When we look back on how the pandemic changed us, surely one of our biggest silver linings would be claiming that it allowed us to see care needs and finally meet them with the urgency, innovation and investments they deserved.

Care is our next frontier.

Patrice Martin is the co-founder and CEO of the Holding Co., a lab to redesign care for the 21st century.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.