Tag: telefonica

Posted on

Spain’s Rosita Longevity, an app that helps seniors be more active, is headed to Florida

Hearts Radiant, a Spanish startup that’s building a “longevity coach” for seniors — with the goal of extending quality of life through app-based personalized coaching designed to combat and even prevent frailty — has closed a seed round of funding as it gears up to launch in the US, eyeing Florida’s 4M+ over 65s.

We covered the startup as it came out of stealth to announce pre-seed funding for its digital coach, aka Rosita Longevity, back in October 2020. It followed that by launching out of beta in Spain at the end of 2020 — and went on to amass around 2,000 “very active” users, with an average DAU/MAU of 30%.

The app is offered as both paid or a lighter, freemium version.

Rosita Longevity wants to teach seniors how to live long, healthy lives

“Over the first months we worked on creating adherence and medical plans and by September 2021 we came out of beta and launched our first paying cohort,” says co-founder Juan Cartagena. “The cohort was capped to 40 users paying an average $60/quarter because it involved many manual processes.

“Over the last five months we have been working on automatizing those processes while delivering the service to those users (aside the other ones on the free version). To this day we have had just one person churning and an average DAU/MAU of about 80%, which is incredible for a non-chat product.”

The idea for a personalized digital coach to motivate seniors to make lifestyle improvements to raise their quality of life and even, potentially the number of healthy years they can live — grew out of an in-person spa/retreat for seniors run by the wife-husband founder team.

Digitizing programs developed at the spa — and proving that digital coaching and other remotely delivered technologies can be as effective as in-person therapies is a key part of Hearts Radiants’ mission, as it works to scale a business that sells ‘longevity as a service’.

A clinical trial on its approach is still ongoing, with progress having been delayed somewhat by COVID-19. But the startup tells TechCrunch it plans to publish research on its methodology soon, possibly this summer.

The app-based coaching program packaged as Rosita Longevity focuses on encouraging (gentle) exercise as a way to boost seniors’ mobility and decrease frailty, as well as increasing their social connections (via cohort-based group classes) for an age group that can suffer especially from loneliness and associated mental health issues.

We need to pay more attention to ‘age-tech’

The app organizes seniors into different cohorts depending on their physical condition and muskulo-eskeletical symptoms in order to tailor support — with AI used to help develop a personalized plan per user, based on information they provide about their mobility and any illnesses/conditions etc.

But core to the program is “motivational” coaching — which is provided by (human) healthcare professionals who, while they are dispensing advice/classes digitally, are certainly not made of pixels.

The app-delivered program also provides seniors with other information on how to live better for longer, such as advice on diet, or provides support to manage chronic pain, such as through targeted physiotherapy, in addition to serving up info on relevant emerging research around ageing and longevity.

“When you download the app you go through an evaluation process where Rosita learns where you are today and relevant issues of your past health, helps you set the goals for your next months and proposes an action plan to achieve them. The plan combines live and recorded sessions, follow up tests and group chats with our specialists that will cover all the questions and issues our seniors have,” explains Cartagena.

“We have found these group sessions very relevant in the senior community because as you age, most of the pathologies affect them in a very similar way (comorbidities are very similar and close in symptoms) so it feels very productive to group them in terms of learnings and follow ups.”

“Users inside of a cohort get a personalized plan but are coached in teams per cohort, leveraging social health and peer dynamics. So we are connecting the human part with the automated part for most impact, keeping a healthy trainer ratio,” he adds.

The €2.4 million ($2.8M) seed round was led by Barcelona-based impact fund, Ship2B ventures. Other investors include JME Ventures, KFund, Seedcamp, Bankinter, Seedlink Health, Telefonica Wayra, the University of Chicago, and a number of business angels — including Cristobal Viedma (founder of Lingokids) and Poonam Sharma (a “health veteran” at Oscar Health).

As well as the seed funding the planned expansion into the US — where Cartagena says it will (at least initially) opt for the same b2c model, charging seniors to access a “Prime” version of the app that unlocks access to more classes/therapies — the startup wants to spend on R&D with the goal of developing what he describes as “longevity biomarkers with biomechanics and artificial vision”.

Which is a condensed way of saying the startup hopes to be able to use computer vision/machine learning technologies to automate the detection and assessment of frailty/prefrailty in seniors to better tailor programs and interventions, even if the only hardware in the room is a relatively old smartphone with a not-so-amazing camera.

Further plans for the seed funding are to expand “longevity plans” to more specific cohorts — “based on a combination of behavioral patterns and health history” — so it can offer increasingly customized programs.

“The holy grail of all of this is preventing frailty before it happens,” adds Cartagena. “Frailty and prefrailty are like being diabetic and prediabetic: It is just a matter of where you set the bar. Neither prefrailty nor prediabetes gets much attention but the impact to society is very large. We want to find the people who have the risk of becoming prefrail much much earlier, in their 60s and early 70s.

“We are initially very focussed on functionality, which includes biomechanics, muskulo-eskeletical changes and other areas related (such as gait strength or patterns) that are proxies to mental health (even stronger than cognitive tests!) and literally life expectancy. As we grow we will combine these tests with other lifestyle data, blood tests, microbiome and epigenetic clocks.”

“Tests for frailty and prefrailty exist, but geriatricians can easily point a frail person by looking at how they walk a couple of steps. Therefore an AI might be able to do the same,” he adds.

Asked about the ongoing clinical trials it intends to demonstrate the effectiveness of its digital programs, he suggests the “key variable” is consistency — noting that the current paying cohort is doing 320 minutes+ of exercise a week (“which even for in person coaching is amazing for the senior community”).

“What I believe we have proven with our pre-seed round, is that you can achieve high adherence and results with virtual coaching,” Cartagena adds. “The WHO recommends 150 minutes of physical activity for seniors per week (the average is less than 50 and most do 0 minutes (walking does not count)), and we are achieving a lot more than that (320 in paying users and 170 in non-paying users), plus people are feeling better so they are also becoming more active outside the App, which we do not measure properly yet. This amount of activity in seniors in really unheard of in geroscience.”

Startups at CES showed that elder tech can help everyone

‘We are going to create the best environment for startups in Europe’

Posted on

YC-backed Blabla raises $1.5M to teach English through short videos

Short, snappy, entertaining videos have become an increasingly common way for young people to receive information. Why not learn English through TikTok-like videos too? That was what prompted Angelo Huang to launch Blabla.

Originally from Taiwan, Huang relocated to Shanghai in 2019 to start Blabla after working in Silicon Valley for over a decade. A year later, Blabla was chosen as part of Y Combinator’s 2020 summer cohort. The coronavirus had begun to spread in the U.S. at the time, keeping millions at home, and interest in remote learning was reviving.

“It was my eighth time applying to YC,” Huang, who founded two companies before Blabla, told TechCrunch during an interview.

This week, Blabla announced it has raised $1.54 million in a seed round led by Amino Capital, Starling Ventures, Y Combinator, and Wayra X, the innovation arm of the Spanish telecoms giant Telefónica. While Y Combinator wasn’t particularly instrumental in Blabla’s expansion in China — one of the biggest English-learning markets — the famed accelerator was of great help introducing investors to the young company, said the founder.

The Blabla app pays native English speakers by the hour to create short, engaging videos tailored to English-learning students around the world. The content creators are aided by Blabla’s proprietary software that can recognize and tag their scenes, as well as third-party translation tools that can subtitle their videos. The students, in turn, pay a subscription fee to receive personalized video recommendations based on their level of proficiency. They can practice through the app’s built-in speech recognition, among other features like speaking contests and pop quizzes.

The startup is in a highly crowded space. In China, the online English-learning market is occupied by established companies like VIPKID, which is backed by Tencent and Sequoia Capital. Compared to VIPKID’s one-on-one tutoring model, Blabla is more affordable with its starting price of 39 yuan ($6) a month, Huang noted.

“The students [on mainstream English learning apps] might have to spend several thousands of RMB before they can have a meaningful conversation with their teachers. We instead recycle our videos and are able to offer lessons at much cheaper prices.”

The app has about 11,000 weekly users and 300-400 paid users at the moment, with 80-90% of its total users coming from China; the goal for this year is to reach 300,000 students. The funding will allow Blabla to expand in Southeast Asia and Latin America while Wayra X can potentially help it scale to Telefónica’s 340 million global users. It will be seeking brand deals with influencers on the likes of TikTok and Youtube. The new capital will also enable BlaBla to add new features, such as pairing up language learners based on their interests and profiles.

Blabla doesn’t limit itself to teaching English and has ambitions to bring in teachers of other languages. “We want to be a global online pay-for-knowledge platform,” said Huang.

Posted on

With lower bandwidth, Disney+ opens streaming service in UK, Ireland, 5 other European countries, France to come online April 7

Disney+, the streaming service from the Walt Disney Company, has been rapidly ramping up in the last several weeks. But while some of that expansion has seen some hiccups, other regions are basically on track. Today, as expected, Disney announced that it is officially launching in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Switzerland; it also reconfirmed the delayed debut in France will be coming online on April 7.

Seven is the operative number here, it seems: it’s the largest multi-country launch so far for the service.

“Launching in seven markets simultaneously marks a new milestone for Disney+,“ said Kevin Mayer, Chairman of Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International, in a statement. “As the streaming home for Disney, Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, and National Geographic, Disney+ delivers high-quality, optimistic storytelling that fans expect from our brands, now available broadly, conveniently, and permanently on Disney+. We humbly hope that this service can bring some much-needed moments of respite for families during these difficult times.”

Pricing is £5.99/€6.99 per month, or £59.99/€69.99 for an annual subscription. Belgium, the Nordics, and Portugal, will follow in summer 2020.

The service being rolled out will feature 26 Disney+ Originals plus an “extensive collection” of titles (some 500 films, 26 exclusive original movies and series and thousands of TV episodes to start with) from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, and other content producers owned by the entertainment giant, in what has been one of the boldest moves yet from a content company to go head-to-head with OTT streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Apple.

The expansion of Disney+ has been caught a bit in the crossfire of world events. The new service is launching at what has become an unprecedented time for streaming: because of the coronavirus pandemic, a lot of of the world is being told to stay home.

That means huge demand for new services to entertain and distract people who are now sheltering in place. But it has also been putting a huge strain on broadband networks, and to be a responsible streamer (and to make sure quality is not too impacted), Disney confirmed (as it previously said it would) it would be launching the service with “lower overall bandwidth utilization by at least 25%.

Titles in the mix debuting today include “The Mandalorian” live-action Star Wars series; a live-action “Lady and the Tramp,” “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,”; “The World According to Jeff Goldblum” docuseries from National Geographic; “Marvel’s Hero Project,” which celebrates extraordinary kids making a difference in their communities; “Encore!,” executive produced by the multi-talented Kristen Bell; “The Imagineering Story” a 6-part documentary from Emmy and Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Leslie Iwerks and animated short film collections “SparkShorts” and “Forky Asks A Question” from Pixar Animation Studios.

Some 600 episodes of “The Simpsons” is also included (with the latest season 31 coming later this year).

With entire households now being told to stay together and stay inside, we’re seeing a huge amount of pressure being put on to broadband networks and a true test of the multiscreen approach that streaming services have been building over the years. In this case, you can use all the usuals: mobile phones, streaming media players, smart TVs and gaming consoles to watch the Disney+ service (including Amazon devices, Apple devices, Google devices, LG Smart TVs with webOS, Microsoft’s Xbox Ones, Roku, Samsung Smart TVs and Sony / Sony Interactive Entertainment, with the ability to use four concurrent streams per subscription, or up to 10 devices with unlimited downloads. As you would expect, there is also the ability to set up parental controls and individual profiles.

Carriers with paid-TV services that are also on board so far include Deutsche Telekom, O2 in the UK, Telefonica in Spain, TIM in Italy and Canal+ in France when the country comes online. No BT in the UK, which is too bad for me (sniff). Sky and NOW TV are also on board.

Posted on

Loon and SoftBank’s HAPSMobile team with Airbus, China Telecom and more on stratospheric cell networks

A new industry alliance led by Alphabet’s Loon high-altitude balloon technology company and SoftBank’s HAPSMobile stratospheric glider subsidiary aims to work together on standards and tech related to deploying network connectivity using high-altitude delivery mechanisms.

This extends the existing partnership between HAPSMobile and Loon, which began with a strategic alliance between the two announced last April, and which recently resulted in Loon adapting the network hardware it uses on its stratospheric balloons to work with the HAPSMobile stratospheric long-winged drone. Now, they two are welcoming more members, including AeroVironment, Airbus Defence and Space, Bharti Airtel, China Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Intelsat, Nokia, HAPSMobile parent SoftBank and Telefonica.

The new HAPS Alliance, as it’s being called (HAPS just stands for ‘High Altitude Platform Station’) will be working together to promote use of the technology, as well as work with regulators in the markets where they operate on enabling its use. They’ll work towards developing a set of common industry standards for network interoperability, and also figure how to essentially carve up the or stake out the stratosphere so that participating industry players can work together without stepping on each other’s toes.

This new combined group is no slouch: It includes some of the most powerful network operators in the world, as well as key network infrastructure players and aerospace companies. Which could mean big things for stratospheric networks, which have the advantages of being closer to Earth than satellite-based internet offerings, but also avoid the disadvantages of ground-based cell towers like having to deal with difficult terrain or more limited range.

Is this the first step towards a future where our connected devices rely on high-flying, autonomous cell towers for connectivity? It’s too early to say how ubiquitous this will get, but this new group of heavyweights definitely lends more credence to the idea.

Posted on

Alphabet’s Loon and SoftBank’s HAPSMobile turn solar-powered drones into flying cell towers

Alphabet-owned Loon, the company that had been focused on delivering internet communications to remote areas via stratospheric balloons, has completed development work on a new payload for partner HAPSMobile, a subsidiary of SoftBank that’s building high-altitude solar-powered uncrewed aircraft. The two companies jointly adapted the communications technology that enables Loon’s balloons to beam communications networks to Earth for use on HAPSMobile’s drones, effectively turning them into high-flying mobile cell towers.

This is the result of a strategic partnership that the two companies announced back in April of last year, but an important step because it means that Loon’s technology will get its first functional tests on vehicles other than its ballon-based platform. The HAWK30 aircraft that HAPSMobile developed is a solar-powered electric aircraft that flies at speeds of over 100 km/h (around 60 mph) in the stratosphere (with an operating altitude or around 65,000 feet) which is much faster than Loon’s balloons, which meant adapting the payload to perform at these speeds. Part of that customization included making the antenna used to beam the LTE connectivity to devices on the ground much more responsive, allowing them to rotate quickly to maintain the best possible connection.

Loon and HAPSMobile say the their communications technology can provide connections between devices as far as 700 km (435 miles) apart, with data transfer speeds reaching as high as 1Gpbs. HAPSMobile’s goal with the HAWK30 project is to expand the scope of coverage vs. terrestrial cell towers, since their high-altitude position can cover a much larger surface area vs. even the tallest cell towers. In fact, the company notes that just 40 of its aircraft could provide coverage to the entirety of Japan, vs. “tens of thousands of existing terrestrial base stations.” Plus, fewer areas would be considered out-of-range as a result of inhospitable terrain or difficult to reach areas in terms of infrastructure installation.

For Loon, this is a signifiant expansion of their current operating model, providing another path to revenue that includes adapting their communications technology for use on different types of aircraft and delivery models. It’s yet another example of the type of commercial partnerships available to the company, even as it ramps up its existing balloon-based deployment plans with partners including Telefonica and others.

Posted on

Alphabet’s Loon signs deal with Telefonica to provide internet to remote parts of the Amazon

Alphabet-owned Loon, the high-altitude balloon company that is using its stratospheric technology to provide internet connectivity on Earth, has signed a new commercial agreement with Telefonica-owned Internet para Todos (IpT). The IpT initiative, which is also backed in part by Facebook and the Development Bank of Latin America, aims to provide internet connectivity to users in remote locations across Latin America, and its deal with Loon will specifically connect users in remote parts fo the Amazon Rainforest in Peru.

Loon will begin providing service in 2020, provided the deal gets all the necessary regulatory approval it requires. This is a first in terms of a commercial deployment of high altitude gallons with the aim of offering connectivity over a continued, sustained period, so there’s some new ground to break in terms of working with the Peru Ministry of Transport and Communications prior to launch, but the partners involved are working with regulators to make sure everything’s signed off before launch.

This isn’t the first time Loon has worked with Telefonica – the two join forces to provide emergency internet connectivity following the 8.0 earthquake that hit Peru in May, and the’ve been collaborating on a number of projects for years. For Loon, this is now the third commercial contract it has secured, including one with Telkom Kenya which is also awaiting final regulatory sign-off, and an arrangement with Canadian company Telecast to develop a coordination system for a future planned low-Earth orbit satellite constellation.

The initial deployment plan for this partnership with IpT will provide connectivity to an area that makes up around 15 percent of the total area of the Loreto Region in Peru, which together accounts for a population of around 200,000 people. Of that 200,000, roughly a quarter have access to connectivity at least that 3G quality, according to Loon. The Loon balloons that will be deployed to provide service essentially act as very high altitude cell towers, receiving LTE connections and redistributing those directly to consumer devices on the ground.