Two dynamic young companies in the senior-tech space, Mentia and Spiro100, announced their strategic partnership today. Mentia is the maker of the first dementia-friendly digital world, Deva World, and Spiro100 is the producer of the largest original library of senior wellness classes. Spiro100’s foothold in senior living communities and recent expansion to in-home use aligned perfectly with Mentia’s ability to embed wellbeing support therapies into its immersive interactive 3D platform and deliver it via touchscreen tablets to the point of care. The companies see themselves as amongst the first to spot an alignment in the expanding field of well-being technologies for seniors.
How will the integration happen? “We’ve built a story around Spiro’s beautiful modules”, Salomon says. “Deva World is all about context. Players find the television in the bedroom. The supporter gives cues to help clients reach their destination if needed. Once they turn on the TV, the screen expands, and they can do the class together, cheered on by Julie, the inworld companion.
The collaboration broadens each other’s market: for Mentia, adding the exercise and wellness modules to its virtual home means that care staffs have additional activities for their clients at the point of care. While Spiro100, whose programs are usually done in groups, gets to connect with cognitively isolated individuals at home, a group that is normally hard
to reach.
Mentia’s Co-founder and CEO, Mandy Salomon, commented, “Streaming high-quality wellbeing programs like Spiro’s is an exciting step for us as we’ve always seen Deva World as a place for scaling expertise. Our vision is to bring a broad range of curated person-centered activities onto the Deva platform for caregivers’ easy and affordable access. The cognitive scaffolding of our virtual world means clients spend more time with the content, which is meaningful for families and providers. Also, we capture a global view of digital activities undertaken in the home, where as standalone apps create data silos.”
For Spiro’s Co-founder Alex Rochestie, the draw card was Deva’s game-like setting and having a new distribution channel for its programs. “Our mission is to change cultural beliefs around aging by offering wellness programming to seniors that allows them to live a longer and healthier life. Beyond the technology, which we consider first class, the Deva World platform is opening avenues to seniors living with dementia in profound ways. As a premium content producer in the active aging space we know creating content and offering our videos to older adults can have an impact on people’s lives. Things get exponentially more exciting when we can put our content in the hands of care professionals working in the real world. The partnership was a no-brainer for us, and we are thrilled to explore a brave new Deva World of opportunities with Mentia going forward.”
Longevity health tech advisor, Tom Bang, CEO of The Bang Group, credited for introducing the pair, sees the partnership as a positive indicator that the senior-tech market sees value in collaborating. “This kind of collaboration accelerates adoption of their solutions and in turn the longevity market, benefitting all participants, including the seniors who need it most”, says Bang. “It’s a delight to be involved with these vibrant innovative companies.”
The new Deva World release, with Spiro100’s exercise modules embedded, is scheduled for mid-March.
