UCD Health Tech Spin-Out Kinesis Acquired By Linus Health

1st April 2022

Boston-based digital health company Linus Health has acquired UCD spin-out Kinesis Health Technologies, which specialises in physical function assessments for older people, for an undisclosed amount of money.

Kinesis will operate as a subsidiary of Linus, which uses AI to detect and diagnose cognitive and brain disorders, with CEO Seamus Small assuming the position of managing director of Kinesis and Dr Barry Greene retaining his position as chief technology officer.

Linus said the two companies "share a focus on utilising cutting-edge machine learning and widely accessible digital devices to make proactive health screening more practical and prevalent" and that the acquisition would further its ability to "generate a robust view of an individual’s brain health to facilitate early detection of issues."

“The more we can uncover about a person’s brain health, the faster we’ll be able to help providers intervene when something is awry,” said David Bates, CEO of Linus Health. 

“Acquiring Kinesis provides the opportunity to accelerate our progress in the key areas of gait, balance, and mobility – and garner related insights to shape our understanding of a patient's health and associated risks to better inform our clinical guidance and care plan recommendations.

"We’re looking forward to collaborating with the Kinesis team to enhance our combined impact.”

Founded by Small and Greene in 2013, Kinesis has grown to offer a suite of tools for assessing gait, balance, mobility, falls risk and frailty and its customers across Ireland, the UK, the US and Canada have conducted more than 40,000 patient assessments with its technology to date.

“Kinesis shares Linus Health’s vision of combining clinical expertise with machine learning to usher in a new paradigm of proactive screening and intervention to support older adults seeking to preserve their health and way of life,” Small said.

“We’re excited to join the Linus team and work together to bring effective and impactful digital screening solutions to more people around the world.”

Kinesis secured €590,000 in investment in 2016, with Enterprise Ireland contributing €100,000, while it was developing sensor-based falls risk technology, and the company has built a robust validation base with over 70 peer-reviewed publications and a network of research partnerships around the world.

Operating company Kinesis Health Technologies Ltd booked a net profit of €43,000 in 2021, reducing accumulated losses to €970,000.

Period-end liabilities amounted to €630,000, and net worth was a negative €380,000 at the end of last year.

Source: Business Plus

Image source: Nick Bradshaw, Fotonic