Fueled by $40 Million In Funding, SafelyYou Expands AI-Enabled Fall Management Technology Across America's Senior Care Facilities
Omega Healthcare leads round and prepays $10 million to install SafelyYou across care centers
Belmont Village Senior Living reduces ER visits from falls to 4%, well below 25% industry average
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SafelyYou, the leader in AI-enabled fall management technology for seniors and individuals with Alzheimer's disease, related dementia or cognitive impairment issues, today announced the close of a $30 million Series B financing round led by Omega Healthcare Investors, a real estate investment trust that invests in the long-term healthcare industry. As part of its investment, Omega also prepaid $10 million to fund installations of SafelyYou across their 944 facilities.
Also participating in the financing is SCAN Group, a mission-driven organization dedicated to keeping seniors healthy and independent. SCAN is supporting SafelyYou's growth in order to expand the availability of its fall management technology to a wider range of older adults. SCAN Group is the parent organization of SCAN Health Plan, one of the nation's largest not-for-profit Medicare Advantage plans.
The two new strategic investors join existing investors Eclipse Ventures, Foundation Capital, Founders Fund, and DCVC, and the new round raised SafelyYou's venture funding total to approximately $70 million.
Following the company's Series A raise earlier this year, the investor interest in doubling down on AI-enabled fall management – the detection and prevention of falls – speaks to the company's fast growth to date, and a growing need for technology to address patients with cognitive issues and aging Baby Boomers suffering from dementia. An estimated 1 in 3 seniors in America die with the condition.
SafelyYou combines technology and professional caregiver intervention to not only detect a potentially injurious fall, but prevent future falls through AI-augmented pattern recognition and analysis. Only SafelyYou reviews over 1,500 videos of on-the-ground events per month, thereby harnessing data insights to provide personalized care plans for each individual.
"My mission was to create a company that my Mom will need," said George Netscher, founder and CEO, SafelyYou. "My mother lost her mother to Alzheimer's, and now my aunt has it. This is personal. Every fall that can be prevented means another son, daughter, sibling, friend or relative won't experience the suffering I witnessed. Seeing our technology being rapidly adopted by care centers across the country means we are helping prevent head injuries, hip fractures, and the associated stress, grief, and cost to caregivers and affected families."
"We were immediately attracted to the mission of SafelyYou, which is not only an innovator and industry leader, but also supports our focus on improving senior care facilities for both staff and residents," said Vikas Gupta, Senior Vice President, Acquisitions and Developments at Omega Healthcare Investors. "SafelyYou reflects our passion for improving the lives of seniors, especially those who are most vulnerable – our residents suffering from various forms of cognitive impairment including Alzheimer's and dementia."
The funding announcement coincides with the release of a case study validating the benefit of deploying SafelyYou in 25 of Belmont Village Senior Living's memory care neighborhoods, which are designed as safe environments for residents with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. In Belmont Village, SafelyYou identified residents with a high likelihood of repeat falls and guided appropriate personalized care. As SafelyYou was deployed in the Belmont Village's communities over two years, the partners found the rate of fall-driven ER visits was down to just 4%, well below the industry average of 17-25%. Those findings are consistent with SafelyYou's averages – the platform helps reduce falls by 40% and ER visits resulting from falls by 80% – significantly decreasing costs, risks, and stress for both families and senior living communities.
"We learned that by better seeing how we were responding to someone who has fallen, we could revamp and improve our training on a continuous basis," said Patricia Will, founder and CEO of Belmont Village. "If you can mitigate fall risk, that's a huge win. After we looked at the results, we said, 'this is a technology that we're willing to implement across the company.'"
In addition to fall detection and prevention, SafelyYou's technology assists caregivers with medication adherence, behavioral monitoring, management of false alarms, memory issues, and occupational therapy issues.
About SafelyYou
Originating in 2015 as the doctoral research of CEO George Netscher—and inspired by his own family's experience with Alzhemier's disease—SafelyYou utilizes artificial intelligence to detect falls with unprecedented accuracy and provides fall video for root-cause analysis, empowering care staff to help prevent future falls. This innovation is combined with insights from SafelyYou fall experts, shaping a first-of-its-kind fall detection and prevention program. Specifically designed for memory care, or care for residents with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, SafelyYou provides better support for unwitnessed falls by allowing for more informed ER decision-making. Today, this proven technology is successfully deployed in numerous communities in North America. Research results published in the American Journal of Managed Care revealed that real-time fall detection using SafelyYou's AI-enabled video recording reduced the need for emergency services by 80% in dementia care facilities. For more information, please visit www.safely-you.com or call 415-579-3630.
About Omega Healthcare Investors
Omega is a real estate investment trust that invests in the long-term healthcare industry, primarily in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities. Its portfolio of assets is operated by a diverse group of healthcare companies, predominantly in a triple-net lease structure. The assets span all regions within the US, as well as in the UK. More information on Omega is available at www.omegahealthcare.com.
About SCAN Group
SCAN Group is a mission-driven organization that is tackling some of the biggest issues in health care for older adults. SCAN Health Plan, one of the nation's foremost not-for-profit Medicare Advantage plans, serves more than 220,000 members in California. Independence at Home, a SCAN community service, provides vitally needed services and support to seniors and their caregivers regardless of plan membership. SCAN Group also invests in new companies to support healthier aging, offers education programs, community funding, volunteer opportunities, and other community services in support of its mission to keep seniors healthy and independent. To learn more, visit scanhealthplan.com or follow us on Twitter @scanhealthplan.
About Belmont Village Senior Living
Founded in Houston in 1997, Belmont Village is an integrated developer, owner, and operator of high-quality seniors housing in major metropolitan areas across the country. Its communities are renowned for distinctive design, high standards of life safety, reputation for quality of care and leading edge, award-winning programs. Belmont Village has been ranked one of FORTUNE Magazine's 50 Best Workplaces for Aging Services. Learn more about Belmont Village at www.belmontvillage.com.
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