Tech’s forgotten people: the elderly
As money pours into healthtech solutions for older people, there could be a bigger opportunity going begging.
In some ways, you couldn’t design a better target market. They have more money than young people, more time to spend it, and they’re growing in numbers – rapidly. They’re increasingly digitised, with smartphone adoption, internet use, and positive attitudes towards technology all on the rise.
And “if you’re good to them,” according to one startup founder, “older adults tend to be more brand-loyal, more trusting.”
So why aren’t Australia’s tech companies doing more for seniors?
The country’s agetech sector is almost exclusively populated by health-related solutions, some of which have attracted sizable investment. Aged care management platform Lumary, headquartered in Sydney, raised $17 million back in 2021. In June, Perth-based Nuheara’s self-fit hearing aid secured $4.4 million of funding to accelerate growth in the US. And in September, Google agreed $2 million of grant funding for the University of Melbourne’s therapeutic music tool, MATCH, for people living with dementia.
But while health applications are evidently a priority for the segment, tech companies appear less interested in delivering to older people what they’ve succeeded in doing for younger generations: fun.
