AI-generated summary
The Bankinter Innovation Foundation’s Akademia programme stands out for its rigorous student selection, cutting-edge curriculum, and exceptional faculty, cultivating graduates passionate about innovation and equipped to drive creative solutions. One such alumnus is Nerea Amenábar, a social entrepreneur transforming elderly and dependent care through her ventures. Starting in 2012 with Mugat, which offered companionship and care services, Nerea later co-founded Ubikare, a startup integrating technology with traditional care via telecare and remote monitoring. Her initiatives also include a pioneering nighttime home care service, addressing the continuous support needs of vulnerable populations.
Nerea credits Akademia and the broader iNNoVaNDiS programme for nurturing essential entrepreneurial values like initiative, critical thinking, and resilience. Inspired by regional challenges linked to an aging population, she developed services targeting home care workers and later embraced technology to bridge healthcare and social care gaps. Ubikare’s innovative use of artificial intelligence through its NAIHA system automates assessments and personalizes care, improving efficiency and quality for users and caregivers alike. Looking ahead, Nerea envisions elder care becoming more personalized and tech-enabled, with robotics supporting social tasks in care facilities and digital tools enhancing home care. Her journey exemplifies how determination and innovation can create meaningful societal impact in eldercare.
Entrepreneurship to care: how an Akademia student redefines the limits of caring for the elderly with her social entrepreneurship
At the Bankinter Innovation Foundation, we are very proud of the alumni who have been part of our Akademia programme.
The uniqueness of the program lies in its design and execution: it ranges from a meticulous student selection process to a practical and avant-garde approach to the content of the classes, complemented by the excellence of the teachers. This results in students who are enthusiastic about innovation, ready to bring new ideas and creative solutions in their respective fields.
On this occasion, we interviewed Nerea Amenábar, a former student of Akademia and social entrepreneur. Nerea is changing the way we care for the elderly and dependent people. With passion, ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit, Nerea has embarked on a journey that has led her to co-found two innovative companies in this field.
She began her adventure in 2012 with Mugat, a project dedicated to offering companionship and care to those who need it most. A few years later, he launched Ubikare, a startup that enters the world of technology to complement face-to-face care with telecare and remote monitoring. Nerea goes beyond simply setting up companies; is a true driver of change, launching a night-time home service in Azpeitia, thinking of those whose need for support does not understand schedules. Currently, together with the Ubikare team, he strives to improve the quality of life of the elderly and dependent people every day.
Nerea Amenábar’s story is a clear example of how determination, combined with a deep desire to make the world a better place, can lead to real changes in society. Through her initiatives, Nerea is offering services that bring hope and dignity to many people.
Below, we summarize the interview we had with Nerea:
When you completed the iNNoVaNDiS programme at the University of Deusto, and within it, the Akademia programme, how did this experience contribute to your professional development and to the conception or promotion of Ubikare?
iNNoVaNDiS and Akademia contributed to strengthening essential values for any entrepreneur. I would highlight three:
- Initiative: the experience increased my confidence in myself and thanks to this I began to take actions that I considered to be positive, without needing the approval of my friends, family or teachers.
- Critical gaze: it helped me to question everything around me, evaluate what could be improved, be aware of my strengths, but also of weaknesses. In addition, I learned the value of constructive criticism and the need to build an environment that favors dialogue.
- Resilience: the path of an entrepreneur is full of obstacles, therefore, being able to live in first person an experience, full of difficulties and failures, helped me to strengthen my resilience.
Of all the things you experienced at Akademia, what did you like the most?
Being able to learn about the trends and challenges of the future was what I liked the most. Being aware that there are many things to be done, to improve society, both socially and environmentally, and that new technological advances bring with them new challenges, was a revelation for me. In a few days, you are aware of all the niches of opportunity that exist for entrepreneurship.
Your interest in population aging began a decade ago. Could you share what inspired you to focus on this challenge and how your vision on the topic has evolved since then?
Indeed. 12 years ago, in my region, we created an association to promote the entrepreneurial spirit with the help of Iraurgi Berritzen (regional development agency). From this agency they presented us with the 3 strategic challenges defined at the local level, one of them was the aging of the population. In my beginnings, I focused on live-in workers who work at home, “the slavery of the 21st century”. I launched a new service called “night guards” in collaboration with the city council. She was aware that there were other challenges such as integrating the health and social world or professionalizing care at home, but she was clear that she needed travel companions. Later I was lucky enough to meet my current partners (engineer and doctor) and I saw it possible to address these challenges. We were clear that technology had to be an ally to be able to face this challenge. Now I see that technology is very advanced, but that there is a gap in making it accessible.
Creating a startup focused on improving the quality of life of seniors and their families must have been a major challenge. What prompted you to found Ubikare and what were the main obstacles you faced in the beginning?
Since I was a child I have had to listen more than I would like “you can’t handle it”. I believe that each “no” has made me stronger and has fueled the flame of the desire to undertake to solve an important challenge. The beginnings are very difficult, even more so when you want to transform a sector that has barely innovated in decades. I would point out the following obstacles:
Financing: although there was a very strong commitment on the part of the founders of the project, we had to be very creative in order to obtain the necessary financing and balance the treasury, especially in the earliest stages: grants, sale of deductions for R+D, participatory loans, tax deferrals, etc.
Credibility: to launch an innovative project in an area where trust is vital, it is important to find a partner that supports you with their brand.
Integrate teams: our project tried to integrate very separate worlds: Social and Health. In addition to this, we had to integrate engineers with the health and social team. Building a common language where the parties could have a constructive dialogue was a great challenge.
Ubikare stands out for its innovative approach, incorporating artificial intelligence through NAIHA. How did the idea of developing this technology come about and in what aspects do you think it has revolutionized home care?
We were clear that, in order to enable quality care, integrating home help service team, health professionals, and economically accessible, we needed to incorporate technology into the value proposition. Technology has made it possible for care tasks to be prescribed according to existing best practices and in a homogeneous way. In addition, it has helped to distribute these among the different agents of the care ecosystem (home help assistant, family, main caregiver, social worker, nurse, etc.) according to their complexity and relevance, putting the elderly person at the centre and empowering them.
NAIHA is described as a system that improves health and social care by automating key processes. Could you give us concrete examples of how NAIHA has improved results for users and optimized resources and time in practice?
NAIHA improves key processes both in terms of care and management. As an example, we can imagine a patient where his family intuits that he could suffer from a cognitive disease, since on two occasions he has gotten lost on the way home after buying a loaf of bread. At NAIHA, a cognitive assessment has been developed, which in just 10 minutes and by answering simple questions from the patient, we can know if the patient has any type of cognitive pathology. Until now, the patient had to make evaluations of more than 1 hour and the professional later needed to correct the same one for another half hour. In addition, NAIHA, with the result of the evaluation, automatically proposes (without the need for professionals to invest hours of work) personalized exercises so that the patient can stimulate the most damaged cognitive abilities.
Based on your experience and current technological advances, what do you imagine care for the elderly will be like in 10 years’ time and what role will technology play in this scenario?
Both in nursing homes and at home, I believe that care will be increasingly personalized, adapting to each person and their biopsychosocial situation, both care services (schedules, typology, extra-family support, etc.) and medical and pharmacological prescription.
Specifically, in nursing homes and day centers, I see robots supporting professionals in different tasks, especially in the most recreational and social ones. In addition, I believe that “cohabitation units” will gain strength and that residences will increasingly resemble homes.
In home care, the incorporation of tablets will be very important, especially the function of video calls, both for monitoring and monitoring the health status of the elderly person, and for any specific support that the main caregiver needs, both technical and psychological.
Thank you very much, Nerea!
If you want to know the testimonies of other Akademia alumni, you can see them here.
And if you want to know more about the Akademia program, we invite you to visit the Foundation’s website.
