A FUTURE SENSE

WORDS: LIV MORGAN

SensorMind, a Dublin-based health technology start-up, has secured initial seed funding of €500k from two private investors and Enterprise Ireland. Co-founder Siobhan King-Hughes speaks to WMB about securing the investment, product development and UK launch plans.

There are currently more than 728 million people of pensionable age in Europe, and the number of people over 65 is projected to rise by 40% by 2025. Tapping into this huge client base, SensorMind has developed two innovative products that will enable older and vulnerable people to maintain their independence. As a result of this massive projected growth in population ageing combined with increasing public healthcare costs, 'Assisted Living Technology' is essentially the new LBD (little black dress) in the wardrobe of innovation.

"It's in-vogue all of a sudden" laughs Siobhan. "When I started working on my products nobody knew what I was talking about."

Currently, 100,000 older people are living alone in Ireland. This is SensorMind's key market. "What's happening in the demographic at the moment is that people are living longer and people want to remain at home. That's the first prefererence. It's not possible at all stages but I do think that we need to look at a diversity of models for people so that there is flexibility for families and individuals to make their own choices on where they want to be."

Read more about Siobhan King-Hughes in the Winter 2010 issue of WMB, on newstands now.