Mobile health startup Vigil changes name   24 Aug 2016

Mobile health startup Vigil changes name as it expands into Australia

By Fiona Rotherham

Aug. 24 (BusinessDesk) - Vigil Monitoring, the digital healthcare company founded by Ray Avery and Alan Brannigan, is changing its name to Jupl as it expands into Australia.

The company’s cloud-based technology platform, backed by Spark and Bupa, records health and activity level details about patients who are living independently by connecting wirelessly to devices such as smartphones or smartwatches. Details are uploaded and notifications sent to healthcare providers, saving labour costs and providing better monitoring.

Brannigan said the Vigil Monitoring name was well-regarded locally but didn’t encompass everything the company does. The name Jupl is a play on the word duple, relating to connecting two people.

“We are more than just monitoring. We connect carers, family and friends with their loved ones by providing personal biometric data in real-time,” he said.

The company has just developed a new app which its healthcare provider customers will sell, allowing information to be passed on to families and caregivers wherever they are in the world.

Jupl is paid a licensing fee per active user from its three New Zealand customers who include global healthcare provider Bupa and charitable organisation St John.

Also under development and due for release later this year is another product linking healthcare providers to patients “beyond the gate”, i.e., when they move outside their homes.

The Personal Emergency Responses Systems (PERS) market is predicted to grow at double-digit rates in the near future. The World Health Organisation forecasts the number of people expected to live past 65 years will reach 1.5 billion by 2050 globally and that’s causing a steadily increasing demand for home healthcare services, of which the PERS is a key component, Brannigan said.

Jupl has opened an office in Australia and is now ramping up expansion in that market through its partnership with Bupa and one with another large player it’s due to announce in a couple of weeks, to provide the hardware for its software technology.

Next year the company plans to expand into other international markets, in particular the UK and Europe, funded by a near-$4 million capital fund-raising round in early 2017.

Jupl has focused on the PERS market, which is funded by governments and insurers, but its technology can also be adapted to other remote social and health data environments once it becomes clear who would pay for it, Brannigan said.

Established four years ago, Jupl is already profitable, Brannigan said, declining financial details. It has had around $1 million in government research and development funding grants and attracted $5 million in investment from Spark Ventures, Spark’s internal unit focused on developing new technologies, in 2013 and a further $5 million in 2014 from Bupa. Spark and Bupa own about 30 percent and 19 percent respectively. Brannigan has retained a 10 percent share and Avery 8.6 percent.

(BusinessDesk)

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