A State College start-up hopes to home in on the billion-dollar senior living facility market.
Buzby Networks, founded in 2008 by a group of Penn State-affiliated students and a professor, has created an indoor positioning device that may replace locked doors or alarm systems in senior care centers where residents’ freedom of movement must be balanced by the assurance they are kept safe, said Buzby’s president and CEO, Erik Davidson.
“The No. 1 concern in those facilities is wandering residents,” Davidson said. “When dealing with seniors with cognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s, residents are at risk of wandering away from the facility.
Our system can warn care providers if residents are at risk of leaving their facility, so they can immediately tend to those individuals.”
The product, the BuzNet Real-Time Locating System, works in a similar fashion to GPS, as mobile, battery-powered bracelets send constant signals back to a router that overlays the tags’ positions onto a floor plan. The technology emerged out of a senior seminar in the engineering entrepreneurship class taught by associate professor Sven Bilen.
“We saw this project had potential, that if we were to develop it further, it would have applications in a number of markets. And so the idea was formed to run with it and form a company,” Davidson said.
The five founders included Penn State undergraduates Davidson, Erik Weir, Dan Weiss, graduate student Nick Platt, and Bilen, who continues to teach in addition to his entrepreneurial activity.
The company incorporated in early 2008, and it received its first investment, from The Technology Collaborative in Pittsburgh, soon after. Since then, the money has continued to flow in for development, culminating in the announcement on Sept. 20 it had received a $109,150 investment from Ben Franklin Technology Partners.
“The simplicity of their system makes them ideally suited for a senior living facility, as it’s cheaper and more likely to be adopted than other solutions because their platform is so easy to use,” said Liz Wilson, Ben Franklin’s marketing director.
Wilson touted BuzNet’s potential attraction to the logistics and defense industries.
“It’s an easily integrated technology and a highly competitive opportunity,” she said.
Before it looks at other applications, Buzby will focus on breaking into the lucrative senior care market.
“That market is valued at $2.6 billion, and with one-fifth of the population moving into the senior citizen age group by 2030, demand is growing,” he said. “Our technology can help these facilities be a lot more efficient in tackling the inevitable challenges health care is facing.”
BuzNet is still not ready for prime-time, and won’t be available commercially until the latter half of next year. Davidson said the company’s six employees are working to perfect the product’s functionality. Ensuring every detail is taken care of before launching the product is key in setting the base for a potentially huge takeoff, he said.
“Right now, we’re still doing early stage piloting. It’s a very fun and exciting time for us,” he said. “If everything goes well, the potential is enormous.”
Cliff White can be reached at 235-3928.
