UnaliWear raises $3.4M for its Kanega PERS watch

Cheerful old woman sitting on the beach

UnaliWear announced the initial closing of a $3.4 million seed round financing, led by a $1 million investment from Maxim Ventures.

Most of the funds will be used to beta test UnaliWear’s Kanega watch, which is the wearable part of a Personal Emergency Response System (PERS) designed to deliver independence for vulnerable populations. The waterproof device looks like a classical watch, providing discrete support for falls, medication reminders, and a guard against lost-wandering with “guide-me-home” assistance. It is easy to use, relying on speech interface rather than buttons or touch screens.

The Kanega watch learns the wearer’s lifestyle to provide predictive, pre-emptive support.“My 82-year-old mother wasn’t willing to wear today’s medical alert products, because she said they were ugly, limited to use in the house unless tethered to a smart phone (which she doesn’t have and doesn’t want), and the big help buttons marked her as ‘old’,” Jean Anne Booth, CEO of UnaliWear, said in a statement. “Like most of today’s independent-living seniors, she chose not to use medical monitoring support rather than suffer social stigma. Mom now serves as UnaliWear’s Senior User Experience Advisor.”

The Kanega watch learns the wearer’s lifestyle to provide predictive, pre-emptive support. For example, it may provide directions home or notify the user of gait or speech changes that may be signs of a medical problem such as a stroke. It has cellular and Wi-Fi connections for use in and out of the home, as well as built-in GPS tracking.

Originally developed for seniors, UnaliWear’s successful Kickstarter campaign in early 2015 broadened the company’s outlook. Today, that includes people with disabilities and people with chronic diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and Lou Gehrig’s disease. The Kanega watch should be available in the U.S. in the second half of 2016.