{"id":4212,"date":"2023-02-23T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-business-innovation\/?p=4212"},"modified":"2023-02-22T14:02:45","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T14:02:45","slug":"univeristy-spin-out-seeks-angel-investors-support-dementia-management-smartsocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/univeristy-spin-out-seeks-angel-investors-support-dementia-management-smartsocks\/","title":{"rendered":"University Spin-out seeks Angel Investors Support Dementia Management SmartSocks\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A UWE Bristol and University of Bristol spin-out, tech start-up Milbotix Ltd<\/a>, has announced an investment round to complete the development of SmartSocks\u2122, which track signs of stress and agitation in people with neurocognitive diseases such as Alzheimer\u2019s disease and other dementias.
 
Award-winning start-up Milbotix, which is backed by Alzheimer\u2019s Society<\/a>, seeks angel investment to complete the development of SmartSocks\u2122 and match grants worth over \u00a31\/2 million. The investment will enable Milbotix to help millions of people living with dementia.
 
Angel investor Dean was inspired to invest in Milbotix after witnessing that his late mother, who had dementia, was becoming increasingly agitated and upset. 
 
\u201cSmart socks would have picked up when Mum was becoming agitated and would have helped in the early days of her illness by enabling Dad to deploy the distraction techniques we used to calm her. They would also have helped the hard-pressed care home staff to target their care to her needs and alerted them to her distress when she was alone in her room, enabling them to respond more quickly and help relieve her anxiety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alzheimer\u2019s Society<\/a>, the UK\u2019s leading dementia charity, says there will be 1.6 million people with dementia in the UK by 2040, with one person developing dementia every three minutes. Dementia is thought to cost the UK \u00a334.7 billion a year. 
 
Agitation and aggression in dementia are often caused by unmanaged pain and anxiety. The SmartSocks\u2122 contain comfortable sensors that measure the wearer\u2019s sweat, pulse, temperature, and motion. They work in conjunction with patent-pending artificial intelligence software and a mobile app that alerts carers to signs of distress.

Natasha Howard-Murray, Senior Innovator at Alzheimer\u2019s Society commented \u201cBy taking the form of an everyday item, these smart socks are less stigmatising and invasive than current products and will be easier to use in care settings, helping carers to feel less overwhelmed with multiple tasks.\u201d
 
Commenting on Dean\u2019s investment, founders Dr Zeke Steer and Jacqui Arnold said \u201cWe are seeking passionate, impact-oriented investors like Dean to help us revolutionise how dementia care is delivered. Please get in touch if you would like to support the development of the SmartSocks\u2122 product line.\u201d

About Milbotix<\/strong>
Milbotix Ltd is headquartered near Oxford, UK, with offices in Bristol. The company is a spin-out from the University of Bristol<\/a> and the University of the West of England<\/a>. Founded by robotics and AI expert Dr Zeke Steer and dementia specialist Jacqui Arnold, Milbotix\u2019s mission is to improve the lives of people with dementia and other conditions that make it difficult for them to communicate distress. Milbotix is partnered with Alzheimer\u2019s Society through their Accelerator Programme<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zeke and Milbotix have support from UWE Bristol in many ways including a Digital Innovation Fund grant; support through the Launch Space<\/a> and Future Space<\/a> programmes, intern recruitment<\/a> and projects within our University Enterprise Zone<\/a>.

The Story Behind SmartSocks\u2122<\/strong>
Dr Steer was working as a software engineer in the defence industry when his great-grandmother, Kath, began showing signs of dementia. A gentle person with a passion for jazz music, she became prone to bouts of agitation and aggression after her diagnosis. Realising that technologies like artificial intelligence could revolutionise dementia care, Dr\u00a0Steer quit his job and completed a PhD at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory<\/a> so that he could find a way to help people like Kath.\u00a0

During his PhD research, he spent some time volunteering with Bristol-based charity St Monica Trust<\/a>. \u201cI came to see that my great grandmother\u2019s symptoms weren\u2019t an isolated case, and that distressed behaviours are very common,\u201d he explained. \u201cCurrent alternatives to the SmartSocks\u2122 are worn on the wrist, which presents problems with the devices being removed and causing distress. The SmartSocks\u2122 are comfortable and familiar and exploit the high density of sweat glands on the soles of the feet to more accurately recognise when the wearer is stressed.\u201d

ENDS<\/strong>

For more information and interviews, please contact Zeke Steer at\u00a0zeke@milbotix.com<\/a>\u00a0or on 07887 855393.
www.milbotix.com\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A UWE Bristol and University of Bristol spin-out, tech start-up Milbotix Ltd, has announced an investment round to complete the development of SmartSocks\u2122, which track signs of stress and agitation in people with neurocognitive diseases such as Alzheimer\u2019s disease and other dementias. Award-winning start-up Milbotix, which is backed by Alzheimer\u2019s Society, seeks angel investment to complete the … Continue reading “University Spin-out seeks Angel Investors Support Dementia Management SmartSocks\u2122”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":4216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,127,108],"tags":[42,1162,100,75,76],"class_list":["post-4212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-partnerships","category-research-business-innovation","category-technology","tag-innovation","tag-spin-out","tag-university-enterprise-zone","tag-uwe-bristol","tag-uwe-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4212"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4217,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4212\/revisions\/4217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/research-external-engagement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}