Jon Stojan
What if you could protect your vulnerable loved ones from harm? We all do our best, but what if you could do more to keep your aging parent or active child safe? Every two minutes, a preventable-injury-death happens in the United States. What if you could prevent the preventable?
Wear Tech’s all-in-one safety and wander management solution, Mahi, is a non-invasive wearable companion that scans the environment and alerts the wearer and the caregivers if a vulnerable loved one inadvertently heads towards a hazard. This patent-pending proprietary technology was selected as one of the CIO Techworld Top 10 AI Companies and was an AI finalist in the South by Southwest (SXSW, Austin) event in 2023.
Founder Deepak Arora’s vision for this life-saving technology came from personal tragedy. His young daughter, Mahi, drowned near his family’s home. Five minutes was the difference.
Deepak is committed to bringing this life-saving medical software to the masses, not just to honor his daughter’s legacy but to save other families from experiencing the pain and grief of losing a loved one to a preventable accident. “The driving force for starting this company goes beyond our personal tragedy. It’s about the staggering number of people who endure these preventable tragedies every year.”
Mahi, equipped with advanced AI algorithms, meticulously maps potential hazards in the wearer’s vicinity, including water hazards, ditches, train tracks and more. If the wearer wanders off toward a hazard, it notifies caregivers in real-time.
Deepak’s prolific career in technology:
Deepak’s journey to this wearable, life-saving technology spans over 25 years. Ranging from hardware development, database management and software engineering in a variety of industries, from finance to healthcare. He honed his skills in software development at HCL Technologies before embarking on a role pioneering predictive technologies for oil extraction projects in Waterloo and Fort McMurray, Canada. That position allowed him to utilize his knack for innovation and problem-solving, which would benefit his Wear Tech journey.
Deepak made the transition to healthcare in 2014, leveraging his expertise in system integration to bolster radiology and cardiology services for Merge Healthcare. IBM then acquired them, and Deepak and his family were sent to Wisconsin in 2016. He spearheaded efforts to integrate Watson Health with Merge Healthcare’s imaging solutions and develop a new portfolio line. “Even though I was in healthcare, these roles provided me with solid experience working on the software side, AI side, and the electronics backside.” He eventually left IBM in 2022 to embark on his mission of preventing preventable accidents.
Deepak shares, “When the tragic accident occurred, it triggered a whole thought process.
I kept asking, ‘How did this happen? What could have prevented it?’ I guess that’s where my mind went right away after the initial grief period. And that is how I ended up just brainstorming and thinking that these accidents are called “preventable,” but there is nothing out there to actually prevent them from happening. We can’t have caregivers or loved ones around us 24×7 to protect our vulnerable or at-risk populations, and that’s where I saw Mahi becoming a guardian angel and helping others.”
“When I looked at the numbers, it said that 5 million kids worldwide do not even make it to their fifth birthday. And then, I learned that 4.95 million elderly, ages 80 to 85, die each year from preventable accidents. So essentially, the first and last five years are the most dangerous for vulnerable populations.”
Deepak adds, “Those numbers aren’t going down. Knowing all of that, we started looking at our pain as something we could channel into something more powerful. And as a tribute to our daughter, we could have her come alive in the digital world, so to speak, to help save the lives of others. That was my impetus, and that is my mission.”
After years of meticulous development of Wear Tech’s Mahi in stealth mode, Deepak’s venture emerged into the public sphere in late 2023. He launched a beta version of their medical software. “Now we are in that mode where we can go into pilot site studies with more customers and start our commercialization journey.”
Wear Tech and Deepak have the aid of a co-founder, Jeff Horwath, who contributes to the mission. “He is actually a self-made Entrepreneur himself and builds custom residential homes. He has a successful business, and he was the one who built our custom house. He was at the funeral as well. He told me, ‘If you can make anything good come out of this, make a difference in others’ lives, you should do it. It’s not going to be easy, but you should do it.’”
Deepak adds, “He has invested quite a chunk of change as a lead investor and has been supporting us since then.” Deepak shares that investment dollars aren’t all his co-founder has added to Wear Tech. “He has shared valuable marketing ideas and has brought a great deal of value to the business side of things.”
The many reasons to stay in Wisconsin:
While tech industries seem to flourish on the coasts, Deepak and his family are staying put. “There was every opportunity, I can guarantee you. Over a thousand people have asked me, ‘Why are you in Wisconsin?’ And I go back to the same answer. It’s not that we cannot leave Wisconsin. And we might have better luck going anywhere, east coast, west coast, south coast. I know we would have raised more funds.”
He adds passionately, “We wanted to build a company where my daughter was born, obviously as a tribute, but also the other reason being is if I stay where I am, where the incident happened, people will realize we didn’t move. We were blessed with another daughter last year, and she’s two now. We still have the pond next to us; and we are still living in the same house. This shows we believe in our technology, and we know we can protect her using Mahi.” Deepak explains further, “And Wisconsin has been good to us. They give 25% tax credits to any angel investors who invest with us.”
Deepak’s market research also made Wisconsin the ideal place to bring Wear Tech to market. He shares, “There are 1.1 million residents over 65. By 2030, there will be 1.9 million. On top of that, Wisconsin was the number one state in 2020 for preventable accidental deaths over the age of 65 based on the data provided by the National Safety Council on their website. All that combined, it just made sense to stay. And a dozen local investors have backed us up. One of them is actually our consultant. He believed so much in the mission that he bought into the company. Other investors include C-level executives, successful business owners, and family offices”.
Wisconsin is also known for healthcare innovations like GE Healthcare and IBM Watson Health. “And because we are building our company from the AI side, it’s still novel here so that we can scale.”
As Deepak navigates the complexities of healthcare innovation in Wisconsin and across the country, he remains steadfast in his mission to honor his daughter’s legacy through this impactful innovation that can “prevent the preventable. There were 200,000 preventable deaths around the world in 2020 and 224,000 in 2021; it’s a growing problem that we want to solve. We want to keep these tragedies from happening to others.”
Visit Wear Tech or MAHI.AI to learn more about their life-saving innovation.