Discover how Robopedics is shaping the future of dependent care

The much-needed (and urgent) journey to reinvent the care sector requires technology...and a lot of it.

From home assistance robots to sensors installed at various points in the home or artificial intelligence algorithms that detect patterns and warn of possible anomalies, a squad of technology is paving the way to take care for dependents—whether they are children, the elderly, or people with disabilities—to the next level. The so-called "care economy" is being forced to move into a new era to face the socio-economic challenges that await a rapidly aging Spain, with healthcare systems stretched to their limits and pension sustainability in question.

Some demographic indicators highlight the coming tsunami. In 2023, Spaniards aged 65 and older made up 20.15% of the population, compared to 17.67% in 2013, according to the National Institute of Statistics. They project that the percentage of this age group will peak at 30.5% by 2055.

The seed of BHH member Robopedics is a personal family story of Ivan Martinez, its CEO, who witnessed how a stroke left his father paralyzed on one side of his body. "He went through hospitals and rehabilitation processes but was permanently confined to a wheelchair. Exoskeletons were only sold in professional circuits, costing at least 80,000 euros and weighing around 15 kilos, making them unmanageable," Martinez recalls from that challenging experience.

Unable to sit idly by, this engineer began building a homemade device. "When my father passed away, I decided to make this technology available to everyone in his situation. In 2021, I founded Robopedics with my partners Marc Serra Bartra and Dionís Guzmán. The following year, we raised half a million euros in a funding round, and in 2023, we closed another valued at 1.3 million," he says.

The product, Awake, "has only one robotic leg, making it 80% cheaper than anything else on the market and 60% lighter, so it can be operated by both the person with the disability and an assistant," Martinez highlights as key advantages. They are conducting pilot tests with a center at Parc de Salut Mar and plan to collaborate with more hospitals to achieve CE certification, something they expect by 2025.

Discover more about Robopedics and its product HERE.