After seeing a dramatic uptick in demand for its platform during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ottawa-based Welbi is bolstering its offerings with technology aimed at quickly tracing the source of COVID-19 outbreaks at retirement homes.
The four-year-old company – which helps retirement homes create recreation programs and other activities for seniors and monitor residents’ levels of engagement – said Wednesday it’s added a contact-tracing feature to its software.
Welbi says that with just one click, the new tool can determine which other staff members and residents came into contact with an infected person, when and for how long.
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Co-founder and CEO Elizabeth Audette-Bourdeau said the company’s system already tracks attendance at events and activities to help retirement homes gauge the overall response to their programming, so adding the new feature was a natural next step.
“This is a big, big component that was missing,” she says.
It’s another milestone moment in what’s been a big year for Welbi. In September, the firm beat out 11 competitors to win a long-term contract with Canadian-owned Revera to install its wellness platform at the company’s retirement homes across the country.
Now at 14 employees, Welbi is continuing to push into new markets and expects to announce more new customers in the coming weeks, Audette-Bourdeau said.
The firm – which launched in 2016 and landed US$25,000 in funding during a Silicon Valley pitchfest in March – is also close to finalizing a new financing round, she added.
