Over 44,000 people have died due to COVID-19 in senior care facilities, representing more than 40% of all US COVID-19 related deaths. While these facilities were known to increase the mortality rate of older adults even before the pandemic, they remained one of the only alternatives to expensive full time in-home care. We’ve seen how many older adults have been grappling with this difficult choice–stay at home and isolate without help, or go to a nursing facility and accept that their risk is significantly higher. This unfortunate reality has reinvigorated our mission here at Totemic, and we’ve decided to play our part in helping families adjust to the new challenges of today.
I’m excited to announce some big changes happening at Totemic. We are rebranding ourselves under a new company name, launching a public beta version of our service, and have brought on a new CEO to lead us into the next chapter.
Totemic will be rebranding itself as Koko, short for keep on keeping on. We are expanding from being purely a deep technology company focused on fall detection, to now also building a complete service designed to keep older adults in their homes and out of higher risk places such as nursing homes. At Koko we use technology, insight, and human connection to help people thrive in the place they love most, their own home, day after day, year after year.
While product development for our wireless fall detection and home motion monitoring device is still full steam ahead, we want to help more people across the country, today, when the need is greatest. From our beta testing and early adopters, we have had huge success in providing an over-the-phone service for older adults that they truly enjoy engaging with, while also helping give their loved ones the peace of mind they need. We are happy to announce that this service is launching and available for free nationwide starting today. Please visit our website at meetkoko.com/beta to learn more.
Lastly, Koko has hired Saurabh Gupta as CEO to lead us through this evolution. Saurabh brings with him a history of effectively growing high performing teams across many domains, a deep technical background, and a strong product sense. We are confident he is the leader Koko needs as we transition into a full-service elder care technology company. As we are racing to get our products to the people that need them the most, his expertise has already proven to be crucial.
