Jubo Health completed its A round funding last Friday (13 August), raised $195m in new Taiwan dollar from Chia Hsin Cement Group, Wistron and a couple of angel investors, allowing the company to further AI in senior care in Taiwan and tap North America markets. 

Founded in 2018, Jubo Health started at a lab of National Taiwan University, when the team took on a government-funded project in response to ageing issues. Jubo developed from a project to a privately-held company in 2018, addressing problems facing long-term care with technologies. Jubo has since grown to a company supported by 200 nursing homes, with more than 3,000 users- including nurses, social workers and caregivers, in less than three years.

AI in elderly care, tens of million records

Jubo leverages AI to make life easier for seniors and their care providers and givers. Medication is often the paint point for elderly persons in complex health conditions, Jubo’s solution can improve accuracy and efficiency of the use of medication, identify risk of overuse, underuse drugs or inadequate dosages, notify nurses and pharmacists whenever it is needed.   

The company has a huge database of user records over years of development, having introduced five AI applications for long-term care. Jubo looks to add five more by the end of year.

Borderless, cross-cultural long-term care

Although the Jubo solution is designed to service Taiwanese families and communities, it was found that the nature of long-term care remains unchanged elsewhere. Jubo has started operation since 2020 in the US and partnered with Point Click Care, the largest cloud-based healthcare software provider there. Back in Asia, Jubo has been in contact with the healthcare group ECON in Singapore and brought Jubo’s proprietary care facility into the Japanese market for demonstrations and trials.     

The journey from SaaS to elderly-friendly housing

The SaaS subscription model has been well received by businesses and consumers, leading to a success in the number of users. The very first product Jubo developed for nursing homes has been used by over 150 clients across Taiwan, followed by the second one for day care introduced in 2020. Jubo’s solution has now penetrated day care providers, with one of ten using it.  “We see growing demands for smart, elderly-friendly facilities. I am often asked for creating an ecosystem for care with software and hardware combined because of my background in civil & environmental engineering.” said Dr Shih-Chung Jessy Kang, CEO of Jubo Health.

Photo credit: Jubo Health

Dr Shih-Chung Jessy Kang, CEO of Jubo Health