MedMinder raises $1M, launches new products

MedMinder Systems Inc. in Needham, maker of a smart pillbox that reminds its user when to take medication, has gotten the first tranche of a new $1 million round of financing to fund the launch of two new products in coming months.

CEO Eran Shavelsky told Mass High Tech that a filing yesterday for the receipt of $124,000 came from one new and several existing investors, none of which he disclosed. The money brings the company’s total funding since it was founded in 2007 to at least $3.6 million, the most recent round being an $850,000 one in March which Shavelsky said came from an organization which uses the product.

Related persons on the recent round include Vishu Jhaveri, chief medical officer and senior vice president at Arizona Blue Cross Blue Shield; Mona Eliassen Taliaferro, founder of Eliassen Group; Ben Dunn of the Boston-based investment firm Covington Associates Inc.; and Hiram Samel, chairman of Merida Meridian Inc., a rug company in Boston.

Shavelsky said the new products will officially launch in coming weeks, adding new features geared toward specific patients – including those with dementia – within the next six months. The company’s existing product, called Maya, reminds patients when to take medication through noises and flashing lights, or else with a text message, email or phone call. It also allows for a doctor to remotely monitor when and whether the medication is being taken.

Shavelsky, formerly of Iscar, Sheer Networks and CentrePath, said the company recently moved its headquarters from Newton to a bigger space in Needham. It still has less than 10 employees, but said that it recently opened offices in Japan and the UK, and has manufacturing agreements with companies in those countries. In June, the company announced that the device can now notify users in French as well as English.

In 2009, MedMinder was listed as one of Mass High Tech’s Startup Watch: Five You Should Follow companies.