A Portland-based startup at the intersection of healthcare and “smart”-clothing has been named a semifinalist in a global startup competition, which will feature a final pitch event and awards ceremony next month in Boston.
The company, upByte, was founded in 2015 by Aron Semle and his two brothers as part of an Internet-of-Things-focused hackathon. It unveiled its first product, upBed, in 2016 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It’s a wearable device that can send silent alarms to caregivers within assisted living and dementia-care facilities when a patient with Alzheimer’s or dementia wakes up and gets out of bed. The application is developed atop existing “smart” sock technology that Redmond, Wash.-based Sensoria originally designed for runners to help them analyze their footfalls.
(Editor’s note: upByte has the distinction of being the subject of the first article posted on Maine Startups Insider’s website, “Mainers’ IoT app to help Alzheimer’s patients unveiled this week at CES,” published on Jan. 8, 2016.)
After more than two years as a side hustle, Semle in March finally left his full-time job at PTC (formerly Kepware Technologies) to give his full attention to building upByte.
“We’ve been busy,” Semle tells Maine Startups Insider.
The company’s first customer was Scarborough Terrace, an assisted living facility in Scarborough. It now has 12 customers, all of which are assisted living or dementia-care facilities, and is onboarding two more next week, Semle says.
“Meanwhile we’re looking to expand into ‘aging in place,’ trying to understand the needs of seniors at home. It’s a bigger and expanding market and we’re super interested in exploring it,” Semle says. “Anything that helps with care and provides independence.”
Startup of the year
upByte is one of 100 semifinalists that will pitch at the Startup of the Year competition, being held in Boston on Oct. 16-17. Up for grabs is up to $100,000 in potential investment.
The competition (organized by Established, which was co-founded by Maine native Jen Consalvo) has been around since 2006 and seeks to discover and support the most promising and innovative startups from around the world. Past companies that have been competed include GrubHub, Groupon, LivingSocial, AddThis, Desk, and Uber.
Semle, along with the other 99 semifinalists, will pitch to a room full of judges on Oct. 16. From that group, the judges will select five finalists who will pitch the next day on the big stage to a smaller panel of judges, including Arlan Hamilton, founder and managing partner of Backstage Capital, who will select the Startup of the Year winner.
In addition, there’s also a People’s Choice award, which will be determined by an online poll that just went live this week (vote for upByte!). The People’s Choice award winner will be announced at the final competition on Oct. 17.
“I’m psyched to be able to represent Maine next month in Boston,” Semle said. “There’s a vibrant startup community in Portland. It’s great to be able to take that to a bigger stage and show it off.”
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