SafelyYou Files for IPO: AI-Powered Fall Management Platform Transforming Senior Care

“Mom was lying on the ground, and I was thousands of miles away, powerless to help.”

Behind the current hardships faced by the elderly lie intricate social issues, and the only way to address them is through rapidly evolving technology.

As population aging intensifies, smart elderly care has been increasingly highlighted in recent years. To further promote the development of the smart health and elderly care industry, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the National Health Commission jointly formulated the “Action Plan for the Development of the Smart Health and Elderly Care Industry (2021–2025).” This plan aims to address difficulties older adults encounter in using intelligent technologies and proposes focusing on developing smart solutions for home-based care beds, smart elderly-assistance dining facilities, and smart nursing homes.

Falls have long been a concerning and costly issue, and leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to better monitor falls may represent a critical step in using technology to advance smart elder care. SafelyYou, a San Francisco-based startup, has developed an AI-powered fall management system to detect and prevent falls. The system has been installed in more than 100 communities across the United States and is backed by real estate investment trusts (REITs), insurance companies, and healthcare payers. Over the past six months, the company has secured two consecutive rounds of funding, totaling $59.5 million. With this financial support, SafelyYou will continue to expand its AI-driven fall management system within senior care facilities across the United States.

Why Has This Seemingly Simple Management System Expanded Rapidly and Attracted Investor Interest? VCBeat Attempts to Answer from the Perspectives of Product, Commercial Value, and More.

“My initial goal was to create a company that my mother would need.” SafelyYou was founded by its CEO, George Netscher, in 2015 while he was pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. George Netscher’s grandmother passed away due to Alzheimer’s disease, and his mother and sister are also at high risk of inheriting the condition. George Netscher aims to race against time, hoping to develop technologies or protocols before his mother develops Alzheimer’s disease, thereby assisting his family and other households similarly affected.

George Netscher and his mother. Source: SafelyYou official website

The Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley, is one of the top AI research teams in the United States. George Netscher chose to launch this project at the university also because many of its faculty and staff have family members affected by Alzheimer’s disease. Today, company employee records show that a significant majority of its workforce are either family members of Alzheimer’s patients or individuals personally connected to the disease.

Since the company’s inception, George Netscher has been involved in nearly every aspect of its operations, from writing AI code and on-site technical implementation to project planning and testing. SafelyYou is currently providing support to senior living communities across the United States, including assisted living and skilled nursing facilities. By leveraging an AI-powered fall detection system that captures video footage of falls for root cause analysis, the company enables proactive fall prevention. In 2019, this validated technology was published in the American Journal of Managed Care. The study results demonstrated that real-time fall detection using SafelyYou’s AI-supported video recording reduced the demand for emergency services in dementia care facilities by 80%. The research was also supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Small Business Innovation Research program focused on aging. Beyond fall detection and prevention, SafelyYou’s technology helps caregivers enhance skills related to medication adherence, behavioral monitoring, false alarm management, memory issues, and occupational therapy.

Source: SafelyYou official website; produced by VCBeat

To date, SafelyYou has garnered favor from investment firms in quick succession during the second half of 2021.

In September this year, Safely You secured a $19.5 million Series A funding round led by Eclipse Ventures. The fund’s founder, along with existing investors DCVC and Foundation Capital, also participated in the round. TSQ Advisors, Pathbreaker Ventures, The House Fund, Swift Ventures, Pacific Health Ventures, Anorak Ventures, and 7Percent Ventures helped facilitate the financing.

Following the completion of its Series A financing, the company has achieved rapid growth in AI-powered technology for detecting and preventing falls among the elderly. This progress has heightened investor interest, driven by optimism about its technology for assisting patients with cognitive impairment, growing market demand, and the trend of population aging.

Source: Crunchbase; Produced by VCBeat

Not long ago, SafelyYou announced the completion of a $30 million Series B financing round led by Omega Healthcare Investors, along with a $10 million prepayment from Omega as part of the investment to deploy SafelyYou’s solutions in nearly 1,000 of its healthcare facilities. Also participating in the Series B round was SCAN Group, the parent company of SCAN Health Plan, one of the largest nonprofit Medicare Advantage plans in the United States. With the addition of these new investors, SafelyYou’s total venture capital funding has reached approximately $70 million.

Upon announcing its Series B financing, SafelyYou also released a new case study. The company installed monitoring devices in 25 dementia care units at Belmont Village Senior Living communities. Over a two-year period, the rate of emergency department visits for falls decreased to 4%, compared with an industry average of 17% to 25%.

“Combining the best artificial intelligence with human expertise” is the core philosophy of SafelyYou’s products. The company currently operates three core business units: the AI Fall Management System, the Fall Huddle Resource Center, and SafelyYou University.

How Does the SafelyYou AI Fall Management System Work? The company installs cameras in resident rooms within care facilities, transmitting video feeds to on-site computer systems for AI monitoring. These cameras do not record continuously; instead, they are designed to provide timely medical assistance while safeguarding the dignity and privacy of elderly residents. When a fall is detected, the system automatically records the video and alerts nursing staff. By reviewing the footage, caregivers can assess the severity of the fall—such as whether the resident struck their head—and take appropriate follow-up actions accordingly.

The company has currently installed thousands of devices, recording over 30,000 fall incidents. This also means that SafelyYou is building a computer vision database focused on falls. By leveraging AI recognition and analysis of this data, and combining technology with interventions from professional caregivers, the company ensures higher precision in fall detection and prevention.

The Fall Huddle Resource Center, launched by SafelyYou in September 2020, is a one-stop service platform designed to guide and facilitate collaboration among nursing staff on fall prevention programs. The platform offers a wide range of informational resources, including educational webinars, tools, professional case whitepapers, and articles, supporting industry experts and peers in coming together to learn and exchange insights.

SafelyYou University is SafelyYou’s third core business unit, an internal promotion and management system established in February of this year. SafelyYou University offers free, online training courses tailored to the care of patients with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, and has established a “Fall Champions” community. The fall prevention education and curriculum at SafelyYou University were developed by a team with extensive practical experience in senior living, encompassing specialties in internal medicine, psychiatry, occupational therapy, and dementia care. Individuals who complete the training and assessments are designated as “Fall Champions,” empowering them to lead fall prevention initiatives within their communities and train caregiving staff. For caregivers, participating in these courses facilitates career advancement and access to managerial roles. For community operators, the program helps reduce staff turnover, lower training costs for new hires, and enhance employees’ empathy toward residents.

Another critical issue concerning the use of SafelyYou’s products is determining who bears the risk and liability when an elderly individual falls. Falls are a significant concern in elderly care facilities and can give rise to substantial liability issues. In response, SafelyYou strictly adheres to recommendations from legal experts and strengthens its technological investments in customer safety protection, thereby reducing both fall rates and claim frequencies. Furthermore, SafelyYou’s AI-powered video analytics and big data capabilities clarify the causes and liabilities associated with falls, preventing incidents of liability shirking or fraudulent claims. This highlights another major market advantage of SafelyYou: the system benefits not only customers but also contributes positively to the broader ecosystem, including employers, operators, and insurance institutions.

The “2019 Survey Report on the Living Conditions of Families of Alzheimer’s Disease Patients in China” indicates that there are approximately 50 million people with dementia and 38.77 million people with mild cognitive impairment worldwide, with the number projected to reach 152 million by 2050. According to CDC data, the fall-related mortality rate among older adults increased by 30% between 2007 and 2016. In 2015, medical costs associated with falls exceeded $50 billion, the majority of which was covered by Medicare and Medicaid.

As the U.S. “baby boomer” generation ages, demand for medical care and elderly care facilities is rising, with technological innovations such as SafelyYou addressing critical social issues. Driven by market demand, companies focused on fall detection and prevention for the elderly are vying for position in this growing sector. Examples include Australian wearable developer Spacetalk, Berlin-based Lindera GmbH, and Vayyar. Best Buy’s Lively brand also offers a fall detection program, which became available on the Apple Watch in March. The retail giant has been expanding its footprint in senior care and remote monitoring, signing an agreement to acquire Current Health in October. Amazon has also been deepening its involvement in elderly and home care. In September, Amazon announced its Alexa Together subscription service, which allows caregivers to enroll and remotely assist aging family members. The service includes emergency response capabilities and is compatible with third-party fall detection devices.

Population aging is sweeping across the globe, and China, as a country with a massive population, faces an especially severe situation. According to data from the Seventh National Population Census, China’s population aged 65 and above reached 190.64 million, accounting for 13.5% of the total population. The number of elderly people aged 60 and above will exceed 300 million, representing over 20% of the total population, marking China’s entry into a moderately aged society. As indicated by the National Health Commission’s “Technical Guidelines for Fall Intervention in the Elderly,” falls are the leading cause of injury-related deaths among individuals aged 65 and older in China. Sixty percent of accidental falls among the elderly occur at home, where everyday items such as an electrical cord, an electric blanket, or a water cup can pose significant risks to seniors with limited mobility.

As the aging population continues to grow, the “silver economy” market is expanding rapidly. According to the 2021 China Silver Economy Industry Research Report, the market size of China’s silver economy reached RMB 5.4 trillion in 2020, with an annual growth rate of 25.6%. Data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology projects that the market size of China’s elderly care industry will exceed RMB 20 trillion by 2030. Amid this global competition in technology-enabled elder care, relevant sectors are continuously deepening their efforts, leveraging boundless imagination and creativity to create safe, intelligent, and convenient new lifestyles, striving to make technology a warm and caring companion for older adults.