MoodSpark buys defunct startup’s IP, minds focused on disrupting elderly veterans’ depression
May 11, 2022 | Startland News Staff
A slew of new patents and tools are now in the hands of a KCK-rooted startup that aims to protect aging military veterans that suffer from loneliness, anxiety and depression.
MoodSpark has acquired assets previously held by California-based Dthera Sciences — an early leader of the digital therapeutics space, known for its innovative quality of life therapies, the company announced Wednesday.
MoodSpark’s digital companion uses artificial intelligence to detect such behaviors, alert family, friends, or caregivers, provide digital check ins and assistance in times of social isolation, provide behavioral health intervention, and share engagement data, activity, and response information with caregivers.
As part of the acquisition, MoodSpark has received a sizable IP portfolio that contains patents, a technology platform, an FDA breakthrough device designation, and clinical pilot research related to Dthera’s system for treating anxiety, agitation, and depression in elderly patients experiencing neurodegenerative diseases that include Alzheimers and dementia.
The publicly traded company ended operations in late 2019 after raising about $5 million in five years.
“Dthera pioneered digital therapeutics targeting geriatric CNS disorders. This deal provides us a significant amount of market validation, broadens our IP portfolio, and gets us closer to our dual-use vision for the MoodSpark digital companion,” said Eliot Arnold, co-founder of MoodSpark and a 2021 Techstars Kansas City cohort member.
The Dethera assets will be used in combination with existing MoodSpark technology — known for its ability to detect sadness and promote (or spark) a shift in a person’s mood using memories, conversations, and video visits from loved ones.
“Some of the brightest minds in digital therapeutics were behind Dthera. We are very excited to bring the combined solution to market and establish ourselves as a market leader in social assistive technology.”
Want to learn more about MoodSpark? Click here to further explore its technology.
As the company rolls its new IP into its existing growth strategy, MoodSpark intends to use its technology to reach aging U.S. veterans, the company said.
“The United States has the largest generation of warfighters quickly approaching or at retirement age,” the company explained, noting the Department of Veterans Affairs lists anxiety, depression, loneliness, and social isolation as on the rise among senior veterans.
“The United States is increasingly turning to advanced technology to not only support independent living among older veterans, but to foster human connections and combat cognitive decline.”
2022 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Frustrated by the fit, this traveler-turned-swimwear founder crafted 10 pairs himself; now his trunk show is going global
Opening a popup swimwear store in one of Atlanta’s most upscale malls represented a surge of momentum for Tristan Davis’ high-end brand that began not on a beach or a runway, but in Kansas City’s tight-knit startup community. “We’ve gone from an idea in a handmade bathing suit to a high fashion mall in less…
Harvesting opportunity: How a KC chicken chain turned a strip of parking lot into its latest ingredient
Months before snow blanketed Kansas City this week, Todd Johnson transformed a weed-filled, unusable portion of parking lot at his Lenexa restaurant into a flourishing garden that serves up fresh produce used in kitchens at all three of his Strips Chicken and Brewing locations in Johnson County. In its first season, Moonglow Gardens — as…
AI evolved faster than rules to protect people; this founder wants to code ethics back into the tech
Amber Stewart sees what many overlook in artificial intelligence, she said: the human cost of unregulated technology that can manifest as anything from sexist and racist outcomes to outright theft from willing and unwilling members of the public. “I’m not afraid of the tech,” said Stewart, founder and CEO of GuardianSync. “I’m afraid of unfettered…
A romantic hideaway (for you and a book): Entrepreneur’s heart for reading opens store on Independence Square
America Fontenot didn’t plan to launch her new Independence bookstore on national Small Business Saturday — the busiest shopping weekend of the year — but renovation delays just kept pushing back the opening, she said. So while many small shops were offering Black Friday-adjacent deals to get customers in the front door, Fontenot’s The Littlest…