Intelicare seeks lock in first-mover advantage for its aged-care tech platform

For aged-care tech platform Intelicare, the early groundwork (around 22,000 hours worth) on product development is complete.

Developed in conjunction with the WA state government, the SaaS platform is built around an end-to-end home monitoring service that helps people stay in an independent living environment for longer.

Now, the company is applying an equally disciplined approach towards distribution as it looks to scale up for the next phase of growth.

That includes bringing in a new CEO, Jason Waller, and signing new partnership deals with aged care providers in Victoria and WA.

Waller’s previous role was at aerial-mapping company Spookfish, where he was headhunted to drive the business towards full commercialisation. Spookfish was subsequently sold to US company EagleView Technologies in a $US90m deal last year.

Speaking with Stockhead, Waller said he sees a similar opportunity to add value at Intelicare. (Having brought in a new CEO, Intelicare co-founders Greg and Mike Tappenden are staying directly involved with the business in senior management roles).

“For that business (Spookfish), the founders had taken the concept through R&D and wanted to commercialise it. They were all great in their specific domain, but they needed someone to bring all the moving parts together across operations and commercial sales,” Waller said.

“Where I have experience is in taking a strategy, then execute operationally and run it as a project with a commercial mindset.”

Market opportunity

The initial phase of that execution will be to take the first steps towards sales and distribution, while staying focused on the bigger picture.

On the B2B side, Waller said Intelicare’s recent partnerships with aged care providers in two states – both assisted by government grants – will significantly expand its current marketplace

“That in turn will start to feed into our AI mechanism, which is a critical component of our product. The more user data we get the more refined we get in identifying anomalies,” he said.

But looking longer term, the aim is for the B2B strategy to complement a broader B2C offering.

“Our execution strategy around B2B is to partner with service providers in both aged care and the NDIS. But while that market is growing, both of those segments rely to a large degree on commonwealth funding,” he said.

“On the consumer side, there’s a huge market of people who don’t receive that funding (or won’t qualify for it) – and that’s who we’re targeting with this product.”

“At the right price point, it pays for itself in terms of deferring their medical costs or the incremental cost of going into aged care.”

“Our target over the next two to three years is to develop this product and sell to the consumer market, via both online sales and national retail outlets.”

Peace of mind

On the product level, Waller said the Intelicare product is focused on two key areas; providing peace of mind for families and individuals, and facilitating a route to let people stay in their home for longer.

“It’s money gone out the window for no benefit. With our technology we can remotely identify a slow decline in their ability. And it improves mental wellbeing because conversations with family don’t revolve solely around whether they’re safe or not.”

“As a practical example, one of our clients was feeling the strain because they were constantly calling up their family member to check they’re ok – but they were doing it when they were asleep or first thing in the morning,” Waller says.

“Through our application, they could see when that person was moving around or had put the kettle on, and they’d wait for that before calling and having a conversation.”

That peace of mind will become increasingly important with the number of Australians aged over 70 set to double in the next 15 years.

And in line with that demographic shift, the governments at the federal and state level are increasingly devoting more resources to aged care.

But ultimately, Waller said the private sector will play an important role in providing innovative solutions to alleviate some of the pressure on public services.

“There has to be a solution to this intractable problem regarding an ageing population,” Waller concluded.

“Governments worldwide are seeking to engage the private sector to fill that gap and make it economical for everyone. And products that get to market fastest will have a significant advantage.”