Wolk B.V.

More than 620,000 elderly people break their hip in Europe each year. Hip fractures greatly reduce longevity, quality of live and active participation of elderly in society. In addition, they put severe pressure on healthcare costs.

Wolk offers a solution: a lightweight, wearable hip airbag that combines state-of-the-art sensors and fall detection algorithms to protect elderly people from hip fractures when falling. Like the airbag in a car, it inflates to prevent hard impact when the wearer falls. The Wolk Airbag can be worn under clothes to prevent (perceived) stigmatisation. It not only prevents fractures but also gives elderly the confidence to increase their level of physical activity.

EIT Health Headstart grant for Wolk

Wolk has been selected by the EIT Health Headstart Programme to receive a financial contribution for their project Airbag4all. In this project, Wolk will adapt the current version of the Wolk Airbag to better fit the needs of the business-to-consumer customers. While potential customers in this market are easily convinced of the benefits of Wolk Airbag, the current selling price is unacceptably high for most of them. Therefore, Wolk will develop a version of their product at lower cost price and validate the prototype in living labs throughout Europe. The EIT funding thereby brings Wolk closer to their impact goal of establishing inclusive availability of the Wolk Airbag to all vulnerable elderly, either living at home or in healthcare facilities.

A video of the working mechanism of Wolk Airbag can be found here.

Hezelburcht as grant partner

Hezelburcht is proud of the great collaboration with Wolk. The awarded EIT Health Headstart grant will accelerate the launch of the Wolk Airbag in the European consumer market, and contributes to the prevention of all hip fractures in Europe and globally.

We are very positive about the cooperation with Hezelburcht. After providing them information about our company, Hezelburcht needed hardly any guidance to turn that information into a successful grant proposal. We are looking forward to continuing this cooperation to find and receive more suitable grants to grow our business. - Filippo van Hellenberg Hubar, Managing director Wolk