The Guardian Angel

The platform has 3 key systems i.e. automatic accident detection system, panic button and pandemic management .Africa's emergency response remains largely under developed. Lack of on time and coordinated responses during emergencies results to unnecessary loss of lives. According to the World Health Organization(WHO) 1.35 million lives are lost every year as a result of traffic road accidents, costing countries an average of 3% of their GDP. Guardian Angel's automatic detection system has been designed to save lives when road accidents occur by providing a coordinated and on time response to road accidents. According to WHO 33% of all deaths worldwide is as a result of violence. Guardian Angel's panic button was built to address this problem.Pandemics have known to kill millions of lives and COVID-19 is no exception. If scaled in Africa the platform provides an infrastructure for on time and coordinated emergency response that will potentially save lives.

The World Health Organization(WHO) estimates that 1.35 million lives are lost annually as a result of road accidents causing countries an estimated 3% of their GDP. 93% of the fatalities are in low and middle income countries and majority of the deaths bring among children and young adults between ages 5 and 29. See link. WHO also estimates that 5.8 million death occur annually as a result of violence(suicide,war,homicide,terrorism)See link, link 2. Pandemics on the other hand kill millions with the most recent one COVID-19 killing over 430000 in a span of less than a year. Emergency response to road accidents, insecurity and pandemics in Africa is largely undeveloped, under developed and poorly coordinated resulting to unnecessary deaths. We do believe with on time and well coordinated responses during  such emergencies whether road accidents, terrorist attacks or pandemics lives can and will be saved. The Guardian Angel platform, is an infrastructure built to bring together first responders in human health care, security & safety industries so that they can effectively and efficiently response to incidences and emergencies.

The Guardian Angel is a shared location based emergency response platform bringing together emergency first responders and emergency service providers in health care, security and safety industries into proximity with their audience. The platform consists of three key modules i.e automatic accident detection, panic button and a pandemic management system and pre-registered emergency service providers. There's a smartphone application that service subscribers install. There are three scenarios that the application is designed for. If the service subscriber gets involved in a road accident, the smartphone application installed will raise an alert with their live location details to a pre-registered emergency service provider e.g. an ambulance service or family member. The location details will help the first responders identify the location of the accident to respond effectively. The Panic Button feature is to be used when one is in danger. On pressing the smart phone application button, real time location details are sent to first responders e.g. police, security companies or family member who are able respond to the call. The pandemic management system is by citizens to report pandemic cases to authorities. The system collects data that is helpful for governments and health authorities to effectively respond from data collected.

Our mission is to save lives. It is our vision, hope and wish that all human beings live a full and care free life without having to worry about danger lurking around them. Health and safety is a concern for everyone. Self preservation is an ideal that all well meaning human beings pursue.Our target population is everyone using motorized road transport from motor vehicles to motor bikes which is virtually everyone. Also people who are conscious of their personal security and safety.For the end users we have a pilot group of about 40 participants largely volunteers who are helping refining and tuning the product by providing feedback to the development team. For service providers, we are currently working with ambulance companies specifically St.John who are helping to refine the product further. We have also approached several security companies to adapt the platform into their processes. The shared(cloud) platform provides an inexpensive way for first responders and emergency service providers to reach their target market and customers effectively and efficiently.

The Guardian Angel was conceptualized with the sole purpose of saving lives during emergencies that require medical attention and fast response. The platform aims at building an affordable shared platform for first responders to effectively and efficiently deliver their services that will eventually save lives and reduce complications that result from delayed emergency care. In addition the pandemic response system can be used to quickly and inexpensively manage future pandemics. The solution focuses on preventatitive healthcare and removes barriers that hinder delivery of services in this crucial industry.

One of the key features of Guardian Angel's platform is that it provides a shared cloud platform for emergency service providers and first responders to build their services on. This greatly lowers the barrier to entry for providers and allows them to take advantage of technology to deliver their services. Having real time location services when emergencies happen greatly improves their efficiency and effectiveness in responding to an emergency situation. In addition, the mobile app that is installed by subscribers can also be used as a peer to peer service since they can register family members, friends, colleagues etc as first responders. This creates an ecosystem involving industry players and peer network to respond to emergencies. There is a local provider called Flare that provides ambulance service but they are not automated. One has to call their emergency number for help. The other player is Real Rider who operates in the UK and Canada. My solution is superior to the two and others in this space since Guardian Angel is a complete emergency response system incorporating automatic accident detection, personal safety and security and pandemic management. In addition it provides a cloud shared platform for emergency services providers to inexpensively use technology to deliver services to their target market.

The platform has a web based backend system that emergency service providers(ambulance service providers and personal security providers) are registered. On the front-end users download an android mobile application on their phones. The android application has an automatic accident detection, panic button and pandemic reporting modules. Users register for services and choose service providers they would like to partner with. The app is based use of accelerometer values that are passed through a filter program to detect an accident. We are also in the process of developing an AI based android application to automatically detect accidents based on portable AI. in addition we are also planning to develop IOT devices that can be installed in cars, motorcycles, bicycles and helmets to automatically detect accidents and call for help.

The next generation of Guardian Angel will have AI capability and IOT devices. We are planning to develop devices that can be installed in cars,motor bikes, bicycles and helmets to detect accidents automatically and call for help.

The mobile application uses location APIs to pick up location of the user and send these to an emergency service provider or first responder. The trigger for this is when the application picks up an accident for example a crash using accelerometers in the mobile phone or when the user presses the panic button to call for help.

Below is a demo link

During accidents the many deaths are as a result of lack of inadequate pre-hospital care. This may be caused because of a number of reasons for example first responders not been informed of an accident, mishandling of an accident victim. The former may be caused by lack of consciousness by the victim or temporary immobilization. Most of the victims are in developing countries where most of the these accidents happen(93% according to WHO). The infrastructure for emergency response is not developed in these countries and more so in Africa. Most people do not have access emergency responses i.e. ambulance services or personal security services.The system brings tries to solve this problem of uncoordinated emergency response by building a single infrastructure to consolidate all emergency response providers in one platform. End users are therefore provided with a one stop shop for emergency services which at the moment is lacking.The client facing automatic accident detection notifies the service providers on time in case of an accident and they are able to provide pre-hospital care on time hence saving lives.

The application currently on pilot and has 100 users. With partnerships from ambulance service providers and security companies currently being pursued the numbers will grow to about 60,000 in a year. We are looking at also targeting motor vehicle owners, taxi and motor bike hailing companies, biker groups, boda boda riders(low cost passenger motor bikes ) who ferry about 10 million people a day. We are targeting about 10% of this number which is 1 million people in a period of about 5 years(these statistics are for one country alone). The personal security and safety business looks at a total population of about 500,000 which is the number of customers all the companies have combined. We are planning to go Africa wide in less than a decade which opens our product to a market of about 1 billion people.

Our goal is to release the product to mass market through targeting vehicle owners, passengers of motorized transport, taxi hailing companies, biker groups, boda boda riders, insurance companies. We also plan to develop IOT devices that can be installed in cars, motor bikes, bicycles and helmets to detect accidents.

Since our application is shared and cloud based scaling it will be easy in all markets that we will be expanding to. All we will have to do is build partnerships with local emergency service providers.

We also to take advantage of digital marketing strategies and platforms to reach our target market in addition to door to door campaigns for example meeting biker groups, pitching to insurance companies, taxi hailing companies and also selling our services through emergency service providers.

Financial: We need to setup or lease an emergency call center that is manned 24 hours a day. We also need to market and advertise our product. This is the current challenge. In the short term i.e. 5 years we will need to scale and expand to other countries and regions. We need a marketing budget to enable us reach our target audience through digital advertisement and door to door campaign. At the moment this budget is unavailable. To expand to the targeted countries(Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania) we will need an expansion budget for marketing, partner onboarding, meeting target customers.

In addition we need to develop AI capacity since our next release will have portable AI. We need to skill up. Finally we need to develop our next generation product release that will be IOT based. We will hardware engineers to design and develop the product.

I have personal assets that have been put up on sale whose proceeds will be used to set up the call center and developing digital marketing material. In addition, we are now aggressively applying for grants. We are also looking at selling equity to strategic partners who will inject in the much needed marketing expertise and capital.

If we reach our target market the numbers that we will generate will be able to sustain any future growth and development in the company. The revenues generated will be able to fund any initiatives that we will want to venture into for example marketing, hiring AI and IOT expertise.

Full time- 1

Contract-1

Volunteers- 5

The team is comprised of one full time developer that works on the product. The full time employee has over 10 years experience in the technical industry and has successfully established two other businesses that are now profitable.

The volunteers have a mix of skills. They experts in quality assurance an testing. They ensure that the product meets expected quality and help define the product roadmap.

The other contract staff is a communications specialist who is helping us with public relations and marketing initiatives.

We are currently in talks with a number of emergency service providers. In ambulance services we are at an advanced stage of negotiation with St.John ambulance. Talks are also ongoing with Red cross and E+ ambulances . In the personal safety and security we are in talks with KK security, G4S, Rapid Response and Technique.

Guardian Angel provides to emergency service providers an inexpensive shared cloud platform that enables them digitize and expand their reach to end users. In addition, it brings in operational efficiency and effectiveness in emergency response which is poorly developed in East Africa and the continent at large. Targeting users of motorized forms of transport who account for 80 million in these 4 East African countries the service providers are bound to be presented with a large market that was before out of their reach. In addition it provides an opportunity for the localized emergency service providers to go beyond local borders and offer the services across the region and to the entire African population. For the end users we are providing them with piece of mind that if they are in danger help will be sent their way and hopefully help save their lives. East Africa's population is about is about 160 million and we are targeting 10% of this which is 16 million in the next 5 years. In the long term we are targeting the entire continent which has about 1.2Billion people. Targeting 10% of this population it provides us with a real market of about 100 million.  We do believe that all human beings want to preserve their lives providing us with a ready target market. In addition, most of the continent's inhabitants are frustrated with the emergency response initiatives which are usually government driven and are poorly managed and coordinated rarely providing value to the people.       

We are charging an equivalent of 1 USD per month for our services.  Kenya having a population of 50 million and targeting 10% of this which is 5 million we are capable of generating USD 5million per month in the short term, the next one year. In the next five years if we expand regionally we target a population of 16M generating revenues of 16M per month and if we cover the continent in the next 10years the target population is 100 million generating revenues of USD 100million a month. To get to this number we need strategic investors who will provide marketing and advertising expertise and capital.We are hoping to tap into the current customers that the emergency service providers we are currently engaging have(about 300,000 ) and build the customer base from there. Charging USD 1  and targeting 30,000 of these customers we can raise USD 30,000 per month in the short term.

We plan to sell equity only to strategic partners bringing in the skills and professional expertise and network to grow the product.

With grant and prize money from Solve this will go a long way in helping us get started by hiring a call center. in addition part of the money will be used to create marketing material i.e. digital banners and short online videos to advertise the product.

In addition, we would like to tap into Solve's network of partners to mentors us in our journey and maybe tap into their network to grow the business.

At the moment we are greatly in need to experts in advertisement and marketing to help in service distribution strategies. We also need partners to help us setup the call center and develop marketing and advertisement material by providing the much needed capital. Also we need a board to provide strategic advice and oversight in our activities. On regulatory matters, we need help in accounting and compliance which is a skill that we lack.

For the next release of the Guardian Angel which runs on portable AI we may need guidance and help from industry leaders on how to go about this especially in modelling data.

We need from MIT's AI experts to help guide in coming up with the next generation product that used AI to detect accidents. We also need MIT's help in designing IOT gadgets for accident detection which we have plans of developing. In addition we may need MIT's expertise to further refine and optimize the current product.

We qualify for this prize as the are transformative and innovative. We are creating products that saves lives and help people live full lives. We are problems solvers determined to tackle challenges affecting our community and Africa at large. We are radically diverse team who have come up together to solve problems. We have been resilient in developing the first solution which potential partners and users are willing to take up.

First we will use money for expansion and scaling by developing digital marketing and advertisement material. In addition,we will use the money to develop our AI and IOT products which are currently under development. The money will also be used to rent a call center to be able to handle emergencies better.

Our solution plans to use portable AI. Currently the solution does not have AI capability but the development team is building capacity and researching. The funds will be use to develop AI capacity in house and to develop the next generation of AI ready application.

Our solution contributes to a few of the UN sustainable development goals of good health and well-being, industry, innovation and infrastructure, and partnerships to achieve the goal.

First we will use money for expansion and scaling by developing digital
marketing and advertisement material. In addition,we will use the money
to develop our AI and IOT products which are currently under
development. The money will also be used to rent a call center to be
able to handle emergencies better.

Our solution has the potential to save millions of lives by preventing unnecessary deaths from lack of pre-hospital care or fast response in case of danger. We hope to make the world a safer place to live.

We will use money for expansion and scaling by developing digital
marketing and advertisement material. In addition,we will use the money
to develop our AI and IOT products which are currently under
development. The money will also be used to rent a call center to be
able to handle emergencies better.