K4Connect, a startup founded by one of the inventors of Apple Fingerprint Sensor, has raised $12 million Series B Funding to bring the latest tech to senior communities

In 1998, Scott Moody co-founded AuthenTec, a fingerprint sensor and security solutions company. He later sold the company to Apple in October, 2012 for $356 Million. Unlike any other previous acquisitions, AuthenTec is the only public company ever acquired by Apple. The AuthenTec technologies are now the foundation of the Touch ID.  Now Scott is back with a new startup called K4Connect.

Based in Raleigh, North Carolina, the mission of K4Connect is to make the best new technologies accessible to seniors and people living with disabilities by leveraging its integrated technology delivery platform. Its differentiated software platform can integrate any number of disparate smart devices, systems and applications into a single responsive system. The company’s initial K4-branded products, including the previously announced K4Community, are specifically tailored for seniors and individuals living with disabilities.

Today, K4Connect announced it has $12 million in Series B funding to further develop the Company’s K4Community solution and underlying Fusion platform/OS technologies. This latest round brings the funding total to over $22 million. The round is led by AXA Venture Partners. Joining AXA Venture Partners, the venture fund backed by the world’s second largest financial services company, are Intel Capital, Intel’s strategic investment organization, which led the Series A round, and Sierra Ventures, a premier Silicon Valley-based venture firm, which led K4Connect’s Seed Round of funding.

Previous investors that also joined this round include: Stonehenge Growth Equity, Revolution Ventures’ Rise of the Rest Fund, Traverse Venture Partners, Better Ventures and RGAx, LLC, a subsidiary of Reinsurance Group of America. Agarwal will join K4Connect’s board of directors, working alongside Dr. Ben Yu from Sierra Ventures, Dave Johnson from Intel Capital, Steve Lux from Stonehenge Growth Equity, Terri Novak, the former COO of Kisco Senior Living, and Scott Moody.

K4Connect will also use the proceeds to expand its customer base, which already includes over 13,000 residents across dozens of senior living communities from Florida to California, as well as to accelerate its partnerships across a spectrum of consumer and senior living-specific companies. The funding follows a year of record growth for K4Connect, which tripled its revenues and expanded its team by 40%.

K4Connect’s first product, K4Community, is specifically designed to serve the residents, staff and operators of senior living communities. Integrating the latest in smart home, smart wellness and smart living technologies into a single easy-to-use system, K4Community makes any senior living community a truly Smart Community. K4Community brings together a plethora of advanced device, application and service technologies, making them accessible through both touch and voice technologies. In addition to being a ground-breaking amenity for senior community residents, K4Community also provides community staff and operators with the tools and data to provide the best in care and hospitality, as well as drive a measurable ROI through operational efficiencies and lowered costs.

“We’re honored to have an organization such as AXA Venture Partners lead our latest round of funding. We have been extremely fortunate to have a set of investor advocates who not only wholly support our mission, but also bring significant strategic value,” said F. Scott Moody, Chief Member Advocate, Co-founder and CEO of K4Connect. “Very few companies understand the health and insurance markets, both nationally and globally, as well as AXA. Their support will allow us to not only grow in the United States, but expand internationally as well. We look forward to working with them to expand the market for our first product, K4Community, as well as other planned products.”

Core to K4Connect’s success is its patented Fusion platform/OS, a multi-modal software platform that acts as an enterprise-wide “operating system” that provides a secure and reliable edge-cloud hybrid architecture. Employing an open and modular design, Fusion allows for the integration of virtually any device (home or wellness), service or application into a single cohesive system. In addition to K4Community, future products that will take advantage of the Company’s Fusion technologies include K4Home, designed for older adults living in their own homes, and K4HomeCare, designed for care agencies.

“The health and well-being of the world’s aging population is a key focus for us,” said Manish Agarwal, a General Partner with AXA Venture Partners. “We’ve looked at a number of impressive technologies designed specifically for older adults over the years, yet K4Connect is the first company we’ve seen that can bring all these disparate technologies together into a single solution, not only for the senior living community operators, but also for the residents and their families. We’re excited about partnering with the K4Connect team, including all their prior investor advocates, to find new ways to bring the Company’s current and future solutions to the one billion people they hope to serve around the world.”

K4Connect Founders