What Made 2018 A Remarkable Year In Gerontech?
Originally published on thegerontechnologist.com on January 15, 2019.
2018 was a good year for gerontech. From the GreatCall exit, to Apple’s announcement of the 4th generation apple watch, to Devoted Health’s monster round, companies targeting the the older adult market had a busy year!
WHO GOT ACQUIRED?
The biggest news item of 2018 was definitely GreatCall’s acquisition by Best Buy. This was both Best Buy’s largest acquisition to date, as well as the biggest exit in Gerontech history.
GreatCall, a veteran of the aging-tech industry, was founded in 2005 to provide aging adults with accessible technology and services. They’re most known for creating the best selling “Gitterbug” phone, but their line of products also includes a smartphone for seniors, and several connected health products such as a mobile medical alarm and a fitness tracker. Those of us who’ve been following Best Buy’s efforts in the older adult arena (aka, Assured living), were not surprised to hear that GreatCall was acquired for $800M.
Another noteworthy acquisition, is PillPack, which was acquired by Amazon for just under $1B. PillPack is a full-service online pharmacy, that sorts the medication by the dose and delivers them to your door. The older adult market is an obvious market for this service, since going to the pharmacy and sorting all the medication can be a time consuming chore for older adults and family caregivers, not to mention the danger in confusing medications with one another.
Lastly, CareLinx, a caregiver marketplace, was acquired by Generali Global Assistance for an undisclosed amount. WiseWare, a startup that sold activity-tracking jewellery to older adults, was purchased by CarePredict for $110,000.
APPLE’S BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
In September, Apple announced that the Apple Watch 4 got FDA clearance, and will be able to detect falls and irregular heart rhythm. If a user enters their age when they set up the Apple Watch or the Health app and they are 65 and older, this feature automatically turns on. When I created the Gerontech Market Landscape of 2018, I predicted that the apple watch will someday dethrone mobile medical alarms, simply because it already had the hardware to it. Will this be the end of clunky mobile medical alarms? Probably not in the near future, considering the price tag. However, Apple is already talking to medicare providers about subsidising the watch for at-risk seniors. For seniors who can afford it, there’re really no reason to get a regular mobile PERS when they can get an apple watch, that will offer more functionality and just looks AMAZING.
NOTABLE FUNDING ROUNDS
The biggest funding round of 2018 was Devoted Health’s $300M monster round. Devoted Health sells health insurance to seniors, and this funding round, led by Anderssen Horowitz, brings the company to a valuation of $1.8B.
Runner up is PointClickCare, that raised $186M and is now valued at $1B. Other noteworthy rounds were Orcam’s $30M, K4Connect’s $12M and CarePredict’s $9.5M,
WHO GOT REBRANDED?
Two wellness monitoring startups got rebranded in 2018. The wearable making startup formerly known as Aifloo became Noomi, and smart home startup Curo became Billy.
That’s my 2018 gerontech recap, if you enjoyed reading or feel like there’s some important piece of information that was left out of it, feel free to contact me through linkedin or twitter!
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