Six innovative longevity & aging startups for your radar

LF60 | Institute on Aging's upcoming Tech Talk on July 18 is featuring six fascinating startups - here's more about them

Back online after a refreshing and resetting vacation in beautiful Bali, I’m excited to share details of some longevity startups for your radar. Am heading back to San Francisco next week, following a week in Tokyo, and one of the highlights will be moderating the Institute on Aging Tech Talk, happening at the Enrichment Center at 5pm on July 18.

For the readers of the newsletter in the Bay Area, it’ll be good opportunity to meet in person and see you there. Here’s the registration link: https://lu.ma/ioa-tt-jul2023.

Am genuinely excited about all of these presenting companies - here’s a quick summary of each one, how I meet them and why I think they’re interesting.

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Caavo’s technology simplifies TV for older adults and makes it easy to stay connected with the people who matter most.

Originally a B2C smart remote control product, they found traction in assisted living and are now entering home care and community services, and looking to test and pilot their product in this new market. They were recommended to me via one of their assisted living customers.

Lotus is a wearable ring to control objects at home by pointing.

This team is creating a multi-purpose ring that interacts with objects, such as turning lights off. You place a magnetic switch over the light and can then turn lights on or off with just a swipe of your ring. The dynamic founder Dhaval is an ex-Apple engineer, who’s brought together a stellar team and gone through TechStars, which is where I met them.

​MiiCare is a preventative home care platform and digital wellness coach empowering older adults to maximize health-span.

I’ve known MiiCare since its early days in the UK and am excited to see their US launch. They’re built an AI engagement chatbot - Monica - who monitors data coming in from sensors around the house and engages the older adult in a conversational way. It’s able to save caregiver hours by automating repetitive and manual tasks such as taking vital signs, and helps with reducing feelings of social isolation. They’re been adopted by a number of UK NHS trusts and are starting to win partnerships in the US, such as with AARP.

​Neurofit is giving everyone access to the incredible precision and sensitivity of the oculomotor system as a way to measure and improve neural health.

The company provides a score that can be used to test and train your brain - they’re working with the AirForce to test the brainspeed of pilots, so it’s not just about decline, but optimizing your brain.

My first experience of it was a wake up call - I volunteered to be a guinea pig in front of a room of my colleagues, and then proceeded to do horribly on the test. It turns out that not sleeping (thanks to jetlag) and not eating (thanks to fasting) was having a real impact, and when I tested again a week later my brain was functioning normally again. But it shows that your longevity outcome is very much an aggregation of the every day experience - if I’d continued to eat and sleep poorly my long term brain health would definitely be impacted.

Prifina is building a personal data infrastructure where individuals can collect their data across platforms, and where applications and private AI agents run privately.

This is a bit different from the others - it’s not necessarily an aging company, but it’s building a way for people to safely collect and aggregate their data across platforms, so could be very relevant for e.g. aging in place. For too long our data has been owned and managed by tech companies who use it to target adverts at us, not to make our lives better. I can’t wait to see how this technology could be applied to give people more control and usability of their own data.

​Together. Using AI, Together removes the cumbersome barriers between aging Americans and better health. 

This is a fascinating company that’s having one of its first launching outings at this event. They evolved out of primary care-in-the-home service provider Heal. It has created an AI powered tool that supports aging independently, for example using the camera and AI to track medications or identify vital signs.

Am looking forward getting to know these companies in more detail, and to reconnecting in person with some of you to. Drop me a line if you’ll be there.