San Diego’s GreatCall Buys Lively’s Assets

GreatCall "Splash" pendant device (Used with permission)

San Diego-based GreatCall, the mobile virtual network operator targeting the 65+ market, says today it has acquired the assets of Lively, a three-year-old San Francisco startup offering gadgets and services to “keep older adults living independently longer.”

Financial terms were not disclosed in the statement issued today.

GreatCall described the acquisition as a key step in its commitment to growth and the development of its connected health portfolio.

Lively watches
Lively watches

Lively, founded in 2012, developed a safety watch and sensors for monitoring pill dispensers, appliances, and other everyday items. The system shared sensor data through Lively’s home health platform for older adults, enabling family members and other caregivers to get alerts and share “LivelyGrams.”

The startup raised $7.3 million through two venture rounds, according to CrunchBase. Investors include Cambia Health Solutions and Maveron.

GreatCall said its customer care team would continue to support Lively’s products, which would eventually be managed on GreatCall’s platform.

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.