San Diego’s Independa Raises $1.6M for Technology to Help Elderly Stay Independent

[Corrected 9/21/11, 1:05 pm. See below.] Independa, the San Diego startup developing Web-based services for the elderly, says it has closed on $1.6 million in early stage financing, and investor interest has been strong enough to extend the round to $2.2 million.

[Corrected to show $200,000 loan is in addition to $1.6M investment] Independa CEO Kian Saneii tells me the 2-year-old startup raised the capital from Miramar Venture Partners, based in Orange County’s Corona del Mar, and City Hill Ventures, a new healthcare-focused VC firm founded in San Diego last year by former Halozyme Therapeutics CEO Jonathan Lim. The company also secured an additional $200,000 loan from Silicon Valley Bank.

The company is raising the capital to expand its product development, add to its market-distribution arm, and to introduce new features of its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology through pilot programs, Saneii says.

Independa’s Web-based software is intended to help the elderly maintain their independence by providing regular reminders for medication, appointments, and other needs while also providing friends and relatives a way to check on their loved ones. As we reported previously, the company released its advanced online program in June for beta testing. The system enables Independa’s elderly customers to use Facebook, Skype, calendars, e-mail, and other online social services, with no computer skills required.

The company plans to operate as an integrated software developer providing a suite of related Web-based services, Saneii says. The idea is to provide elderly customers access to social networking tools as well as health and safety services.

For example, Independa does not make sensors itself, but the company has been working with various hardware manufacturers to integrate wireless pill dispensers and wireless sensors for measuring weight, blood sugar, and blood oxygen, Saneii says. With the additional capital, the company plans to expand the capabilities of its system by integrating with more types of wireless health devices, such as a personal emergency response alarm, and blood pressure cuff.

Independa’s CEO says the goal is to integrate its technology in a comprehensive way, so that Independa can provide the broadest offering of wireless health services.

Independa’s system already is being used under several pilot programs, Saneii says. The company plans to sell its Web-based program to retail consumers as well as companies that manage enterprise software services for the elderly, such as assisted living operators and hospice caregivers. Caregivers share access to the system, Saneii says. “Sometimes a family member is the caregiver and sometimes it’s a professional caregiver.”

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.