The firm Durcal, developer of the telecare application of the same name, which is intended for the remote care of elderly people, has raised eight million euros in a financing round led by Telefónica, through its investment vehicle Telefónica Ventures.
The Durcal platform, which consists of a smart watch with integrated GPS that is connected in real time to a telecare application, has registered nine million downloads in Spain since its commercialization began in September 2020. 70% of the people who have downloaded the Durcal application are women between 35 and 60 years old, according to data from the company itself.
It now has the support of Telefónica and other investors such as Mangrove VC (formed by partners of Skype, Wix, Wallapop, Redpoints, Khealth and Walkme), KFund, Prosegur Tech Ventures, Aldea Ventures and Atresmedia. Telefónica and Prosegur are among the company's clients given that the device, which is sold online, is also distributed among seniors who subscribe to Movistar Prosegur Alarmas services.
The company, according to Viladomat, is exploring avenues of collaboration with entities in the healthcare sector in Spain, to accelerate the growth of the device.
The business of the silver economy segment has a long way to go in Spain, according to project promoter Guillem Viladomat, who will allocate the resources obtained in the latest financing round to develop new functionalities for the smartwatch device, which contribute to improving the quality of life of elderly people and guaranteeing their safety through smart health technologies. In addition, the device allows the geolocation of people and has an integrated fall detection system and measures vital signs such as pulse and blood oxygen.
The device and the application have a long way to go in Spain and Andorra ---where it has been marketed in pharmacies since September 2021---, according to the company, but its introduction in Latin America is also planned.
The Barcelona-based startup was born with the mission of reducing the technological gap in the sector and digitizing this group by providing them with an application and a watch that allows them to be more connected with their families, democratizing their access and covering real needs of their users. Currently, it has 19 employees, all of them young people and digital natives aged between 30 and 40. A team that "will surely grow this year," specifies Viladomat.
"Our goal is to become the leading platform for remote family care and to be able to help the largest possible number of people around the world to digitize in a simple but effective way, without stigmatization," says Guillem Viladomat.
The launch of Durcal is part of the growing trend of using devices as a safety element for different social groups, therefore, the company also markets it for families who want to have new technological tools that help geolocate their children.
Durcal is the second project of the Andorran entrepreneur Guillem Viladomat, who has always worked on the launch of technologies linked to geolocation. At just 20 years old, Viladomat launched Alpify, a platform that allows knowing in real time the exact location of a person who is in danger and needs to be rescued.