Innovations in the healthcare and medical industry are happening at an incredible pace, and 2020 has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies. In 2021 and onwards, MedTech innovation is expected to remain in the spotlight, with many startups being the driving force behind this disruptive innovation.

One of these startups is Madrid-based Tucuvi. In the second edition of our Startup Spotlight, we caught up with Tucuvi’s CTO & Co-Founder, Marcos Rubio, to find out more about how they have reinvented the way we care since 2019 and to get an inside look into Tucuvi’s vision.

The Startup at a Glance

• Startup Name: Tucuvi Care, S.L (Tucuvi)

• Industry: Medtech

• Location: Madrid, Spain

• Date founded: September 2019

• Number of employees: 8

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tucuvi/

• Vonage API used: Voice API/WebSockets

In one sentence, what does Tucuvi do?

Tucuvi is an AI Voice-Powered virtual caregiver who augments the capacity of healthcare professionals and provides continuous care for the elderly and chronic patients at home.

What is the problem you are solving? Was this the initial problem, or did you pivot?

Lack of continuous monitoring for patients with chronic conditions. We started as an advanced telecare solution and pivoted towards a more global, healthcare-oriented solution.

What differentiates Tucuvi from your competitors? Is there a secret sauce?

We have developed a disease-agnostic monitoring platform that can be used by healthcare organizations to expand their care capabilities in a simple and efficient way, eliminating digital barriers and without any hardware investment.

VC, Angel, Bootstrap or Other?

A bit of everything. We started with Bootstrap, and then we received a pre-seed round with VC/Angel and FFF involved, together with sales.

What’s the biggest challenge you faced, and how did you overcome it?

The ability to provide “Lola”, our virtual carer, with the intelligence and empathy needed to communicate in a simple and effective way to engage with patients while providing useful information to the healthcare professionals.

The biggest mistake Tucuvi has made so far, and what did you learn from it?

Develop awesome features before asking the final users if they were useful for them. Doesn’t matter how fancy it is, if it does not solve a real problem.

You can choose one to be on your board: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates. Who do you choose and why?

Elon Musk. We could use his “inhuman” ability to push innovation and persistence to the limit to help us reinvent the way we care.

What progress have you made since launching?

We have developed a disease-agnostic platform that is being tested by some of the most renowned hospitals in Spain. As of today, Lola, our virtual caregiver, has spoken with >15.000 patients.

What’s next for Tucuvi? Where do you want to be in 3 years?

We want to position ourselves as the golden standard for clinical monitorization in Spain, helping healthcare professionals to cover the most prevalent chronic diseases.

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