Even before starting his latest venture, K4Connect, Scott Moody had logged an impressive entrepreneurial journey across the Southeast.
He took AuthenTec, a Florida-based tech security startup, public in 2007 before it was acquired by Apple. The more than 230 patents to AuthenTec’s name became the basis for Apple’s Touch ID technology.
Moody was “quite happy in retirement,” he tells Hypepotamus, but reached a point where he told his wife “I’m not dead yet, I have energy left. I need to do more.”
That “more” came in the form of an integrated IoT startup designed to serve “those most underserved by technology…particularly older adults and people with disabilities.”
Above all, Moody — who now calls North Carolina home — describes K4Connect as a mission-driven technology company. “I believe that we are all here to serve others and that we can do that corporately better than we can do as individuals. And the purpose of a corporation, and certainly our corporation, is to serve others. If we do that well, the benefit will flow to all our stakeholders, including or investors.”
The platform looks to integrate different technologies, data sources, and platforms for care home residents, staff members, and family members to use. “It’s how people interface with all wellness and health products or order meals, or look at content, or do a video chat with family. All of those things exist — we didn’t invent any of those things — but what we did do was bring them together in a common interface,” adds Moody.
Through a series of integrated APIs, the K4Connect platform is about connectivity. “Happier is all about connectivity…but it’s not about replacing humans. But it’s about using technology to augment those relationships and ultimately foster human engagement,” he said.
Built on top of FusionOS, an operating system designed specifically for senior living communities, K4Connect focuses on creating more independent living opportunities.
NC Tech For Independent Living
That connectivity became even more important over the course of the pandemic.
“Our technology was incredibly needed before the pandemic, but not everybody saw it that way,” Moody tells Hypepotamus. “There were a couple of reasons for that. One, people always thought older people don’t like technology. Well, that’s actually not true. They just don’t like technology that’s designed by a 25-year-old for 25-year-olds.”
Usage skyrocketed as care facilities looked for ways to connect digitally with family members during quarantines and lockdowns.
In fact, upwards of 81% of residents of care facilities attended some sort of live virtual event, according to a report compiled by the K4Connect team.
The pandemic launched 33% of surveyed communities to invest in an engagement app as well, both for residents and also to help staff members navigate additional responsibilities that came up during COVID.
Investors have taken note. Forte Ventures and AXA Venture Partners both backed Series B rounds for the startup.
The team has grown to around 60 people, with many around the Raleigh area. Moody added the team is currently hiring rapidly. It has also grown a key partnership with Acts Retirement-Life Communities (Acts), a non-profit that manages senior living communities in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and Alabama.
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Feature Photo from K4Connect Facebook: Richard Barlow Photography — at K4HQ .
