This founder was worried about his mother slipping — so he created sensors to detect falls

Falls are common for older people living semi-independently. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), they’re the leading cause of injury for adults aged 65 and up. On average, about 10% of these falls are serious, requiring medical attention. Yet many fall victims don’t get the treatment they need.

George Netscher, a software developer by training, watched his grandmother and aunt, both of whom had Alzheimer’s, struggle to avoid falls. Worried that his mother might also develop the disease, Netscher founded a tech company, SafelyYou, in search of a better care solution.

“The tech originated in 2015 as part of my doctoral research,” Netscher told TechCrunch. “SafelyYou’s mission is to ensure the highest-quality care for seniors in any care setting.”

SafelyYou, which sells its platform to senior living communities, employs a combination of cameras and AI-powered sensors to detect when a person might be falling. Once those sensors spot a fall, they trigger text message and phone alerts to on-call staff so they can attend to the fallen person.

SafelyYou also retains a remote clinical team to document each fall. The team makes recommendations to SafelyYou’s customers so that they can take steps to reduce risk.

“Our expert clinicians have analyzed more than 300,000 on-the-ground events,” Netscher said, “and regularly review fall videos, conduct root cause analyses, and provide suggestions that help to reduce future falls in senior living communities.”

There are other fall-detection products on the market aimed at older populations. But Netscher claims that SafelyYou is less susceptible to false alarms.

“Some other fall technologies won’t detect a fall unless someone has been on the ground for at least 12 seconds, which could miss an individual’s fall entirely if they fell and recovered,” Netscher said. “Our technology is completely ambient and does not require wearables or other inputs from residents or caregivers.”

SafelyYou nearly shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic, when assisted-living facilities around the country were effectively quarantined. The startup managed to make it through, however, and is now serving nearly 1,000 senior living communities.

To support SafelyYou’s expansion, the company recently closed a $43 million Series C round led by Touring Capital with participation from Foundation Capital, Omega Healthcare Investors, Founders Fund, Cross Creek Advisors, Samsung Next, and Qualcomm Ventures.

Netscher says that the new capital, which brings SafelyYou’s total raised to over $100 million, will be put toward growing the company’s roughly 100-person, San Francisco-based team.