In just 36 hours, Tucuvi has closed an investment round of € 160,000. The round was led by Bolsa Social Fund, along with 66 other investors who have decided to invest in the project.
Now, the startup will be able to continue growing and put all its efforts in assisting as many people as possible during the COVID-19 crisis.
A virtual assistant to serve those who need it most
Tucuvi is a virtual assistant based on AI (artificial intelligence) and voice technology. Through calls to the landline telephone number of the users’ home or mobile, he accompanies and monitors them (mainly elderly patients), obtaining continuous care at home.
Its founders are María and Marcos, two young biomedical engineers with great social concern. María had the idea for the startup when she worked at a medical device multinational. In this environment, he realized that much of the innovation in continuous monitoring was created for young people, and that solutions geared towards the elderly remained obsolete. That is why he decided to create a solution that would guarantee that all the elderly could also enjoy “continuous monitoring of their health from their own home, benefiting from technology like the rest of us”.
Tucuvi’s applications compared to COVID-19
So far, Tucuvi has validated several modules for his calls, carrying out clinical and healthcare pilots in hospitals such as Ramón y Cajal, among others. Calls about adherence to treatments, satisfaction, heart failure, or good habits, are some of the modules validated so far.
However, the current situation led them to think about how their solution could help during this health crisis of COVID-19. And they got down to work: they have already carried out a first pilot in Castilla y León, serving more than 1,000 people and detecting 70 alert situations.
Through its virtual assistant, Tucuvi can have several applications during the COVID-19 crisis:
- Estimation of the number of infected people: Tucuvi can estimate the number of infected people in the home. With a single phone number, they can make and analyze more than 100,000 calls a day.
- Follow-up of chronic patients with other pathologies: In this way, these patients are prevented from going to hospitals, reducing the risk of contagion.
- Follow-up of confirmed patients at home: Through periodic calls, Tucuvi can assess the evolution of symptoms in infected people.
- Identification of support needs: Tucuvi can make calls to people living alone and in isolation, and identify what support needs they have. In Spain, the estimated population in this situation is 2 million people.
- Alternative to the evaluation applications from the Autonomous Communities: Tucuvi can act as a complement to the symptom evaluation applications that are being published by autonomous communities. This can serve people who cannot download or do not know how to use a mobile app.
- General information: In the same way, Tucuvi can act as a telephone number for solving doubts related to the virus.
Tucuvi, first company selected in the call “Impact Investing to face COVID-19”
Tucuvi is the first selected in the call ” Impact Investing to face COVID-19″, an initiative led by Bolsa Social with the intention of funding startups that develop solutions to alleviate the crisis of COVID-19. To do this, they have created an alliance of impact investors who study and decide whether to invest in these projects. Among them are Bolsa Social Fund ESEF (lead investor in the Tucuvi round), Open Value Foundation, Ship2B, Creas, Mumtree, Carasso Foundation, Anesvad Foundation, Core Angels, Antonio Aranzábal Foundation …
After Tucuvi’s success, the Alliance is currently analyzing the next projects to publish in the platform.