Vilans, a leading knowledge institute for care and support, systematically tracks innovations in elderly care. Recently they published an overview highlighting various innovations that have been piloted or implemented through long-term contracts in recent years.
Our commitment to elderly care innovation
In 2013, Nextgen Ventures began investing with the expectation that elderly care—including nursing, assisted living, and home care, collectively representing an annual spend of around €20 billion—would see a high demand for innovation. With a rapidly aging population, fewer workers are available to support an increasing number of elderly clients, creating an urgent need for technological solutions.
A decade of good intentions and promising technologies
Over the past decade, there has been no shortage of investment in promising technologies. Care robots like Roos and Lea, lifestyle monitoring systems, fall protection solutions, and a wide range of digital applications—including voice-activated assistants—have all been explored. These efforts are documented in the report “Time-Saving Technologies in Elderly Care.”
A major breakthrough still awaits
Despite these efforts, our cautious conclusion is that the major technological breakthrough in elderly care has yet to materialize. One of the more widespread implementations in the study, lifestyle monitoring, reached just 1,000 systems—representing less than 1% of the market. There is still a vast opportunity for innovation and growth in this sector.
