The Louisville Healthcare CEO announced its final structural element, completing a nearly four-year-long sojourn of deliberate development of the coalition of the highest-profile health care leaders in the city.
Announced at the LHCC Bridging the Gap virtual event, the group will raise a $50 million fund meant to pull entrepreneurs in the aging care space to the area and raise the city’s profile as a source of innovation.
The source of funding and other details for participating in the fund are sparse in a news release put out by LHCC. This story may be updated
LHCC was formed in 2017. Its purpose is to spur greater economic development in Louisville by establishing it as a center of innovation in the aging care space by leveraging Louisville’s concentration and expertise of aging care companies specifically and healthcare companies generally.
It announced in 2019 that it would create a big-dollar fund to invest in innovative companies.
The nonprofit organization also announced that it acquired Aging2.0 LLC, a global network working to accelerate innovation to address the biggest challenges and opportunities in aging. In May 2020, Louisville Business First reported that LHCC coaxed Aging2.0 into moving its headquarters from San Francisco to Louisville.
The Aging2.0 network encapsulates about 40,000 plus members in 130 chapters across 31 countries, according to the release. The terms of the deal were not released. However, LHCC claims that Aging2.0 considered several interested parties to merge with.
“We are thrilled to bring together the largest and most exciting group of innovators in the aging space with a powerful team of established business leaders to leverage resources, accelerate good ideas and drive innovation in the sector,” Tammy York Day, LHCC CEO and president, said in the release.
Another key hope is that the acquisition of Aging2.0 is that it will create a pathway for innovators from all over the world to eventually make their way to Louisville and for Louisville to be known to international innovators.
“This is a logical step for the Aging2.0 network in [the] progression of our goal of accelerating innovation and creating opportunistic pathways for our entrepreneurs,” Katy Fike, co-founder of Aging2.0, said in the release.
The organization also held its third annual CareTech Pitch competition which is meant to identify and then accelerate the development of innovative companies.
Last year, a French company called Famileo won. It uses a website and an app to compile pictures and messages from family members into a personalized family magazine for older adults who prefer physical media who are institutionalized.
LHCC is currently conducting pilots of the product in facilities of the LHCC member organizations Signature Healthcare LLC and Trilogy Health Services, both are regional players in the nursing home arena, to test the impact of the Famileo product. LHCC will launch a second pilot program with Humana Inc. and other unspecified LHCC companies testing Famileo in a home setting in January.
The crop of CareTech Pitch competitors has a heavy emphasis on technology to address the needs of players in the aging space. They include Louisville-based Glennis Solutions, which is a subsidiary of Louisville-based Atria Senior Living. John Moore, the CEO of Atria, is on the LHCC board.
Here’s a rundown of all the participants:
- AiRo Digital Labs, Chicago: A global tech company focused on digital convergence with enterprise systems for healthcare providers
- b.well Connected Health, Baltimore: A one-stop family health management app provider whose app can share data with and interface with third-party apps.
- BrioCare, Frisco, Texas: Uses voice technology and artificial intelligence to provide personalized care and engagement for the elderly
- Care.ai, Orlando, Florida: Transforms ambient intelligence to create self-aware healthcare environments that predict problems before they occur, protecting both patients and caregivers
- Caregiven, Portland: Provides white-labeled digital caregiver and family engagement platform via a smartphone app that gives real-time, curated guidance to informal caregivers
- CarePenguin, Boulder, Colorado: An internet of things device and app that non-invasively monitors the well-being of older adults living alone by observing their activity through water use.
- Virtual Senior Center, New York City: a community-building platform that helps older adults connect and engage with each other through virtual or hybrid classes and events
- Glennis Solutions, Louisville, Kentucky: Provides cloud-based customer relationship software and other enterprise management software and services for the aging care space
