In the age of age-tech: How Bengaluru’s elderly are getting empowered

Raghavendra (name changed), 73, is part of around six WhatsApp groups for the elderly. An electrical engineer who spent more than 30 years in Mumbai, he moved to Bengaluru post-retirement to live with his daughter. In a city of 1.4 crore people, the septuagenarian was starting to feel lonely given his daughter’s busy work schedule and his wife’s demise eight years ago. Then, he found his tribe online.

“They get me a cake for Christmas. I get Tirupati laddus for them. We are all now planning a trip together to Vietnam,” says a very cheerful Raghavendra, during a meetup held by Sukoon Unlimited, a city-based start-up building a community for seniors.

New research area

Research on longevity has been receiving unprecedented attention across the world. In 2024, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) announced the launch of the Longevity India Initiative, a project focused on efforts to extend human ‘health span’ and combat ageing-related challenges. Maverick millionaires like Bryan Johnson have even been attempting anti-ageing experiments.

But the elderly in India have been at an interesting, or rather puzzling, cross-section. With social structures changing and families shrinking to nuclear, how to productively use the silver years without feeling isolated and not burdening others has been a question troubling many lately.

Age-tech, a new and emerging sector, hopes to answer this question with the help of technology and ease the problems of people like Raghavendra.

Age-tech start-ups

Neeraj Sagar, founder of Wisdom Circle, started an online group of age-tech founders in India about two years ago. The group had its first offline meetup last year in Bengaluru where almost 40 founders showed up.

“In a year that number has become 100,” says Sagar.

According to estimates, India currently has about 15 crore senior citizens (people above 60 years), a number which is expected to more than double to 32 crore by 2050. A changing demography means the average age going up and the market needs shifting, prodding entrepreneurs to be early movers in the space. From physical health to emotional well-being to cognitive skills to the employability of seniors, age-tech start-ups attempt to address a spectrum of challenges faced by seniors.

Eliminating loneliness

In 2022, WHO revealed that 1 in 4 older people experience social isolation, seriously impacting their health and longevity, with effects on mortality comparable to smoking, and obesity.

Vibha Singal, founder of Sukoon Unlimited, points out that people with ageing parents often give importance to the latter’s physical health and financial and logistical needs, but are not always in a position to help them with their emotional wellbeing.

“When a person is 60, their kids are between the age of 30 and 40 trying to build their own families and careers.”

There is also a growing segment of elders who are financially independent and prefer being on their own rather than moving in with their children or uprooting their lives to a different place, Singal notes.

“We see if we can help the parents beat loneliness so that they age slower. Finding purpose and community are the fulcrums to beating loneliness. That’s what Sukoon is out to do.”

Started in 2024, Sukoon, according to Singal, is India’s first platform for seniors by seniors offering services such as emotional support, counselling, group therapies, volunteering opportunities, and concierge services.

Both the service providers and service takers are people above 50 years old. “When a service provider is a senior citizen, it gives them purpose. And if the service taker is a senior citizen, there is a sense of community,” Singal notes.

From 200 members in the first month, the community has grown to 6,000 users spread across 400 cities and towns in a year with the average age between 58 and 68. Around 60% of the users are men and 40% women. Some of the most discussed concerns include children’s reluctance to marry, and loss of spouse.

The company has also invested in a proprietary AI tool which can respond in more than 100 languages. Singhal notes that more than 65% of the community members talk to it. There have been instances of users talking to it like a friend, naming it and even spending hours with it.

Fifty-nine-year-old Miranda (name changed), a finance professional at a corporate firm, dialled a Sarathi at Sukoon when she couldn’t come to terms with the thought of retiring in a year.

“The thought of being without a job made me feel purposeless,” she says.  

Employment opportunities

Miranda’s concerns are shared by many. Neeraj Sagar of Wisdom Circle notes that not only is there a significant population who prefer to work even after retiring from their permanent roles, but also quite a few companies who are looking to tap into the experience of the elderly.

Wisdom Circle, which helps retired professionals find employment opportunities, has been around for three years now. Around 95,000 people and 1,500 companies have registered on the platform which has listed about 2,500 roles.

According to Sagar, the demand mostly comes from small and medium businesses and start-ups who are looking to hire specialists for a few days of the week. As far as the elders are concerned, he says, there is a lot more openness to hybrid roles.

But what motivates people to continue working post-retirement? Is it the money or is it something more?

“Money is important to everyone, not always to meet the financial ends, but to feel valued,” says Sagar.

It’s often a bid to continue to feel respected and relevant, backed by the impulse to impart the skills they have acquired over a lifetime and give back to society.

“What we are observing is that people who are worth way more are applying for roles that are not paying them as much. So, staying relevant takes priority over getting paid highly. We are also seeing a lot of people apply to nonprofit roles which pay lesser.”

Keeping the brain sharp

In 2023, a study by Jinkook Lee and others showed that more than 80 lakh Indians suffer from dementia. As the Indian population looks at an increased lifespan and the elderly population is estimated to be 20% of the total population by 2050, the burden of neurodegenerative diseases is also high.

“Typically, when somebody in your family reports having memory issues, you just brush it off as something normal with ageing,” points out Issac John, cofounder of cognitive health start-up Ivory. “But ways to assess if it is normal ageing or accelerated ageing is still not prevalent India.”

Co-founded by John and Rahul Krishnan, Ivory offers neuroscience-backed assessments that claim to help keep the brain sharp and identify neurodegenerative risks early. The duo who up-close witnessed close relatives suffering from neurodegenerative diseases wanted to build a differentiated product for the segment aged above 45 years.

The users first take a simple assessment which tells them their cognitive age. People who are found at risk are suggested to take up a clinical grade assessment.

“We work very closely with the medium and high-risk customers, get them to do a health and lifestyle profiling and recommend things that they need to change in their life, along with a personalized cognitive brain training session available for them on the app,” John explains.

The app currently has about 30,000 users with two-third of them females and 60% from tier-1 cities.

Easy on the knees

When it comes to physical health, orthopaedics forms a crucial need for the elderly. Statistics show that around 50% of the senior population need assistance with basic tasks like sit-to-stand.

“In the larger scheme of things, the inability to carry out this function by yourself has two implications. Apart from the physical exhaustion and the strain, there is the risk that if you do not perform it safely, you could either fall into or out of the chair and end up injuring yourself,” notes Sanchit Jhunjhunwala, co-founder at Translead Medtech, a deep-tech spin-off from IISc, Bengaluru.

“This also leads to a hesitation to participate socially, culturally and economically. Even at home, you may stop yourself from drinking another glass of water because you will need to stand up, go to the washroom, sit down, stand up again, come back and sit down.”

The start-up has designed an assistive chair which offers support while performing the actions of sitting down and standing up, without any electrical power or sensors. The chair seat gently pushes the user while trying to stand up. While sitting down, the sharp rise of the seat drops slowly.

“There has been a 2.5-fold growth in the number of knee replacements done in the last five years. And you’re looking at upwards of 5 lakh such surgeries happening,” Jhunjhunwala puts it in perspective.

He notes that UNSDG recommendations talk about reserving 5% of seating in public space for accessibility.

“You need to make these elements functional as well. That’s where we come in. We are looking at a need of 25 million such assisted chairs in public spaces and 8 million in homes, offices, and so on.” 

The start-up, which is getting ready to begin its shipments in June, has also an assistive commode for the elderly in the pipeline.

Tech that alienates

While developments in technology to assist older people are welcomed, one concern among experts is that, at times, the real needs of the elderly take a backseat to the fascination with technology and its potential.

Arvind Kasthuri, head of the geriatric unit at St John’s Medical College, Bengaluru, recollects his experience of working with a group which was developing wearables for older people years ago and how the team was more focused on what the devices could do rather than what the user wanted or what was feasible.

“Many of them are so kicked with the technology that they cannot resist the temptation,” he warns.

“They have to mesh their technologies into the real world of healthcare and see how the patient flows are. Looking at technologies from a patient flow point of view, and then trying to plug those gaps is better than working at it from the technology end and seeing what all those technologies can actually achieve.”

Pretesh Kiran, Associate Professor at the Department of Community Health, St John’s Medical College, adds that there is a clear urban-rural divide when it comes to age-tech. He also points out that a large number of seniors find it a challenge to adapt to new technologies.

Keeping pace is hard

“Digitisation is great news. But it is also happening at a very rapid pace, excluding key demography in our country, which is our elders,” says Bilal Zaidi, founder of Elderra, which helps seniors learn digital tools.

Zaidi recollects how calls from his elderly parents seeking help to book autorickshaws or groceries via apps increased over the last few years. Hailing autos down the road became almost impossible for them, and the kirana store that used to deliver the groceries to them shut shop in the onslaught of quick commerce.

“The other challenge is, in the absence of an understanding of technology, the elderly population is very vulnerable to scams,” adds Zaidi.

Govt. should join in

The tech divide becomes even more stark in rural areas. On top of it, age-tech’s focus on financially independent seniors living in cities makes the services unaffordable for the larger elderly population. The government and larger corporates should join hands with the startups to make the services accessible for a larger populace, suggests Susan Barton, an eldercare specialist in Bengaluru.