Loughborough University: Graduate startup Alcuris is acquired by The Access Group, extending its social care proposition in the provision of in-home digital care monitoring
The acquisition of Alcuris provides the Access Group’s Health and Social Care business with new technology that allows a step change in social care. Both companies are based on Loughborough University Science and Enterprise Park (LUSEP). Alcuris launched from LUSEP in 2017, one year after Access joined – The Access Group officially opened its new £20 million headquarters on site earlier this week.
Alex Nash founded Alcuris in 2015 whilst he was studying Product Design Engineering at Loughborough, following his grandfather’s diagnosis of dementia. The company has grown at pace, securing more than £3M investment to create 16 jobs and deploy at scale its multi-award-winning telecare platform.
Alcuris provides a combination of hardware and an in-home digital hub to provide daily living insights for users and carer management insight for families and the professional care community. The technology helps address a key gap within the current social care system caused by the absence of smart technology, and in doing so supports caregivers to take pre-emptive care action faster, whilst supporting the desire for people to live independently for longer.
Digital insight direct from in-home monitoring systems allows for the reduction and prevention of hospital admissions, helps support sustainable care delivery in the lowest cost setting i.e., the home and allows care providers to reach more residents than budgets will have previously allowed.
Steve Sawyer, Access Health and Social Care MD commented “Alcuris, together with Access health and social care solutions, truly connects a fragmented market of hardware products and siloed patient and care monitoring. Furthermore, the in-home digital-hub technology helps local authorities, care homes and sheltered housing providers upgrade old analogue alarms and monitoring systems to new digital standards. In connecting and analysing data across our broad range of Access solutions we can provide detailed and integrated insights for the delivery of better patient and service user care.”
Alex Nash said “The Alcuris team is thrilled to be joining The Access Group, whose Health and Social Care division is the leading provider to the local government, health and social care sectors in the UK. Earlier this month we announced our partnership with Medequip Assistive Technology Ltd and Wirral Council; the first local authority to deploy next generation telecare services at scale. As part of the Access family, we look forward to setting the standard in a digital care system that connects people, data and services and enables intelligent care decisions at the speed of life.”
Dr Jen Fensome, Loughborough University Director of Research and Enterprise and LUSEP lead commented: “Since its launch, Alcuris has shown outstanding potential and I am delighted that this has been recognised by The Access Group. The acquisition is excellent news for Alcuris, LUSEP, the regional economy and the transformation of social care. Furthermore, Alex Nash’s entrepreneurial journey will inspire even more startups from the University’s student and graduate enterprise community.”