CherryHome raises $5.2M to apply AI to home care cameras, detecting behavior changes

A new startup using AI to look after elderly people at home has raised a new round of funding to apply its platform to detect changes in gait or behavior, falls or stumbles. In other words, it could start to predict changes in long-term health.

CherryHome, the home AI security system created by startup Cherry Labs, has raised $5.2 million in funding from GSR Ventures to drive the technology’s use for in-home senior care. CherryHome uses its proprietary computer vision algorithms to interpret camera data into virtual “skeletons.” These are used by the AI to understand and analyze home events and people’s behaviors, such as how someone might develop a limp over time, for instance.

The startup competes with Safely You, which sends alerts in response to very obvious falls; Nest and Lighthouse, which tend to only offer very basic AI over its imaging; and Amazon’s Ring, which only offers outdoor security.

With CherryHome, all information is processed locally, so the video doesn’t leave the house, while the senior citizen is replaced in the video with a virtual “stick-person” to preserve their privacy. This last aspect, in particular, is a really good idea.

With this new round of funding, CherryHome has signed pilot deals with TheraCare in-home care-giving service and TriCura, a tech ecosystem for care agencies. Both are based in the Bay Area.

Max Goncharov, CEO and co-founder of CherryHome says: “Understanding human behavior has a long list of applications, from home security to in-home senior care to the overall goal of making smart homes totally autonomous. But improving senior care is arguably one of the most important areas for technological improvement.” He says seniors currently make up 15 percent of the U.S. population, and by 2030, one in five Americans will be of retirement age. Several studies show the majority of those people wish to remain at home, as opposed to moving into an assisted-living facility.