A Charlottesville startup that relocated to Innsbrook last spring continues to grow as it snaps up its first local customer.
WellAWARE Systems sells a monitoring system designed to track the health and habits of seniors living in retirement homes and assisted living facilities. After a successful pilot program, the Towers Retirement Community in Southside will offer the monitoring service to all of its residents. So will the Heatherwood Retirement Community in Burke, Va. Both are owned by Roanoke-based Retirement Unlimited.
Jeff Noce, CEO of WellAWARE, said that the new customers are its first in Virginia since their relocation and that the Towers in particular will fill a key part of the company’s strategy: It will serve as a testing ground for new technologies.
“We can validate things before bring them to the market. The partnership we have with them allows us to do that,” Noce said.
The company provides its service to about 30 facilities throughout the country. A series of sensors set up in each patient’s room track indicators such as time spent sleeping or going to the bathroom. The information is relayed to the caregiver’s computers, who can use the information to provide better care.
For each patient, the provider is charged an initiation fee plus a monthly fee. Kim Fauerbach, assistant executive director at the Towers, said they will offer the service at an added cost to the residents who want it.
Positive results during a limited testing period led the facility to expand its use, she said.
“We could see red flags that say this resident may need more service or a more proactive approach,” said Fauerbach.
The information could be used to determine whether a resident in the independent living section might need to move to assisted living. The facility has about 150 residents, she said, with about 10 percent using the system.
Noce said that since setting up its headquarters in Richmond the company has added 15 employees for a total of about 30. The move followed a $7.5 million capital raise in December from VC groups Valhalla Partners and .406 Ventures.
“This first year make we want sure build a nice beachhead for next year to look at aggressively growing the marketplace,” Noce said.
The company also got a boost in July when its partner, the Good Samaritan Society, was awarded an $8 million grant by a private philanthropic organization to test the effectiveness of the WellAWARE system. About 1,600 seniors in 40 cities will participate in the study.
“The goal is to take this information and demonstrate its value and cost savings to take to insurance companies and drive reimbursement,” Noce said.
Al Harris is a BizSense reporter. Please send news tips to [email protected].
A Charlottesville startup that relocated to Innsbrook last spring continues to grow as it snaps up its first local customer.
WellAWARE Systems sells a monitoring system designed to track the health and habits of seniors living in retirement homes and assisted living facilities. After a successful pilot program, the Towers Retirement Community in Southside will offer the monitoring service to all of its residents. So will the Heatherwood Retirement Community in Burke, Va. Both are owned by Roanoke-based Retirement Unlimited.
Jeff Noce, CEO of WellAWARE, said that the new customers are its first in Virginia since their relocation and that the Towers in particular will fill a key part of the company’s strategy: It will serve as a testing ground for new technologies.
“We can validate things before bring them to the market. The partnership we have with them allows us to do that,” Noce said.
The company provides its service to about 30 facilities throughout the country. A series of sensors set up in each patient’s room track indicators such as time spent sleeping or going to the bathroom. The information is relayed to the caregiver’s computers, who can use the information to provide better care.
For each patient, the provider is charged an initiation fee plus a monthly fee. Kim Fauerbach, assistant executive director at the Towers, said they will offer the service at an added cost to the residents who want it.
Positive results during a limited testing period led the facility to expand its use, she said.
“We could see red flags that say this resident may need more service or a more proactive approach,” said Fauerbach.
The information could be used to determine whether a resident in the independent living section might need to move to assisted living. The facility has about 150 residents, she said, with about 10 percent using the system.
Noce said that since setting up its headquarters in Richmond the company has added 15 employees for a total of about 30. The move followed a $7.5 million capital raise in December from VC groups Valhalla Partners and .406 Ventures.
“This first year make we want sure build a nice beachhead for next year to look at aggressively growing the marketplace,” Noce said.
The company also got a boost in July when its partner, the Good Samaritan Society, was awarded an $8 million grant by a private philanthropic organization to test the effectiveness of the WellAWARE system. About 1,600 seniors in 40 cities will participate in the study.
“The goal is to take this information and demonstrate its value and cost savings to take to insurance companies and drive reimbursement,” Noce said.
Al Harris is a BizSense reporter. Please send news tips to [email protected].