15th Rock Ventures Invests in Ejenta, a NASA spin-off company that develops remote monitoring system

15th Rock Ventures is investing in Ejenta, Inc. (“Ejenta”), a San Francisco-based startup that aims to improve and streamline remote care in the medical field, using the AI technology under an exclusive license agreement with NASA.

Introduction to Ejenta:

Ejenta is a startup based on “Brahms”, an AI technology developed by Maarten Sierhuis, CTO of Ejenta, when he was at NASA. Ejenta was founded in 2012 by Rachna Dhamija and Maarten Sierhuis。

“Brahms” is a technology used to develop intelligent agents. In one application, Brahms intelligent agents autonomously monitor the vitals data of astronauts to maintain their health. The space suit is equipped with a number of sensors that monitor body temperature, heart rate, oxygen etc., and the data is automatically sent to NASA Mission Control staff. The ground staff analyzes this data with the AI technology to help manage the astronaut’s health and activities.

NASA and Ejenta have signed an exclusive license agreement for the commercial use of Brahms, and Ejenta is developing an Intelligent Agent AI system to provide remote monitoring systems for patients with chronic diseases such as heart failure and hypertension, and for pregnant women.

Instead of a space suit, Ejenta collects biometric information from patients through IoT devices and wearable devices when they are undergoing home therapy, and analyzes it using the AI technology to predict their physical condition and to give advice to patients and doctors, through their smartphones and other devices.

▼ Recent Business Status

The company’s service has been introduced at several health providers across the US, including Kaiser Permanente, which is one of the largest health insurance systems in the U.S. and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) health system. By using the company’s services, health outcomes for patients have improved and the rate of readmissions for heart failure and hypertension patients has been reduced by more than half.

▼About the investment

Ejenta was introduced to us by one of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs we have invested in over the years. We are investing in this company as a partner to support its future business development in Japan and Asia. We plan to support their expansion in Japan and Asia after they have a good track record in the U.S. by leveraging the networks of both 15th Rock Ventures and Spirete.

▼Comments from Rachna Dhamija

Ejenta is excited to partner with 15th Rock Ventures to support collaboration and business development in Japan and Asia.

About Ejenta:
Founder: Rachna Dhamija/ Maarten Sierhuis
Address: 181 2nd Street, San Francisco, CA 94105
Founded year: 2012
URL: https://www.ejenta.com/

About 15th Rock Ventures:
15th Rock Ventures is a venture capital firm that invests in human augmentation and information technology with the aim of creating a prosperous society in the age of 100 years. The definition of human augmentation is to create a world where people can improve their physical abilities, acquire various skills that were previously impossible, and have more options in life by combining multiple elemental technologies such as AI, robotics, electronics, AR/VR, and brain-machine interface.

To date, 15th Rock Ventures has invested with Longan Vision (Canada), a developer of AR glasses for firefighters, WHILL(Japan), a provider of short-range mobility and services, and Onera Health (USA), a developer of disposable patch-based sleep disorder detection devices. 15th Rock Ventures will continue to invest in startups in this field with the aim of realizing a prosperous society in the era of 100 years of life.

15th Rock Ventures also owns a startup-studio called “Spirete”, which operates a program that brings together human resources from large corporations across organizational boundaries to develop startups of seed and early stage startups by corporate and university researchers on a global scale.

The name of fund : 15 TH ROCK VENTURES FUND 1 L.P
Founder / General Partner : Tetsu Nakajima, Takeshi Minamoto
Address : Kanda-Ogawamachi 3-28-5, axle-Ochanomizu 101, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
URL : https://www.15th-rock.com/