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Times of crisis, in addition to being culturally and historically significant, are often hotbeds of technological innovation. Scarcity of resources, real pressures to find a solution and better access to capital invigorate technology that might have otherwise taken decades to perfect.
The Novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is no different, with thousands of start-ups, think tanks and governmental bodies working on everything from vaccines to repurposing existing innovations to better control the outbreak. Here is a list of five top tech startups working on making people’s lives easier during the Covid crisis. We have not included any vaccine or medication startups since so far, none of these have been recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as viable and their deployment is at least a year away, by the best estimates.
Robotics
A robot named Little Peanut is delivering food to people being quarantined in a hotel to stop the spread of the coronavirus. A video filmed in a hotel in Hangzhou, China, shows a robot with shelves of food moving from door-to-door carrying food to residents, minimising human-to-human contact to contain the virus. When completing each delivery, the robot says: “Hello. Cute Little Peanut is serving food to you now. Enjoy your meal. If you need anything else, please message the staff on WeChat.”
Logistics
It’s not just developing drugs that is difficult, but getting them to those in need. In the wake of coronavirus, Switzerland’s SkyCell has booked out more than 200 additional transportation pallets to send 46 tons of medication safely around the world.
Medication is notoriously susceptible to environmental changes, so SkyCell containers use a combination of hardware, software and big data to maintain a steady temperature of 2°-8°C and 15°C-25°C for more than 160 hours. These are also able to automatically recharge in a cool environment and have a failure rate of 0.1%, 50 times better than the industry average.
SkyCell already ships pharmaceuticals across 90 countries including Brazil, India and China.
Academic support
Software pioneers are also opening up their platforms to better connect people. A number of virtual classroom tools, including Bahrain-founded Springring, are connecting students, parents and teachers. In Bahrain, schools have been offering students virtual options, like video conferencing and electronic quizzes so students can keep up with their educational curriculum, perhaps becoming the largest case study of home-based 21st century digital learning the world has seen.
Artificial Intelligence
One startup with huge potential to stem the coronavirus crisis is British unicorn BenevolentAI. The business, which has banked $292m in funding since it was founded in 2013, is known for building artificially intelligent systems the help find drugs to treat chronic diseases. Just weeks into the outbreak, the London-based startup was able to use its predictive tools to suggest a slew of potentially useful medicines. These include baricitinib, a drug currently approved for rheumatoid arthritis, which could reduce the ability of the virus to infect lung cells.
Monitoring
Digital therapeutics startup Biofourmis has put its artificial intelligence-powered technology to work in a remote monitoring and disease surveillance programme in Hong Kong. Its technology could be rolled out in at least six other countries, including Singapore, in the weeks to come.
Currently, some 500 people – coronavirus patients as well as suspected cases under quarantine – at the University of Hong Kong-run programme have a Biofourmis biosensor strapped onto their arm. The device monitors whether those under quarantine develop symptoms of the virus, as well as tracks the progression of COVID-19 in those who have been diagnosed with the disease. As such, the remote monitoring device could help cut the risk of infections among healthcare workers. The data it collects would also help clinicians understand the disease better, the company says.
