A little more than two years after Kian Saneii founded Independa, the San Diego wireless health startup says it is making its integrated telecare app, Angela, available Friday for beta testing.
The program, which will be generally available in September, provides a very simple interface that enables the elderly to send and receive e-mail, download photos, and to use Skype, Facebook, calendars, and other web services with no computer skills required. Independa plans to install its preconfigured software-as-a-service on an off-the-shelf touch-screen tablet. Elderly users will not need to know how to use a general-purpose computer, navigate with a mouse or type on a keypad.
“It’s super simple, with just one-touch access to all these things,” Saneii told me during a personal demo last week. “They don’t have to remember passwords or how to get updates.” He’s planning to demonstrate the technology again today at Connections: The Digital Living Conference and Showcase in Santa Clara, CA.
After raising some seed-stage funding last year, Saneii says he has been meeting recently with venture capital partners to raise additional funding for Independa as the startup expands its product offering. The company launched its first offering, the Independa “Smart Reminders” service almost seven months ago, and moved into San Diego’s no-overhead EvoNexus incubator in October. Smart Reminders also is a Web-based platform that combines apps for calendaring, medication reminders, and “life stories” into a browser-based system managed by caregivers.