It’s often true that the innovation behind creating new technologies is spurred due to the existence of some problem. For Deepak Arora, chief executive officer of Hartland-based startup Wearable Technologies Inc., the idea behind his wearable monitoring device – which is a finalist in the 2022 Wisconsin Innovation Awards – came after he experienced every parent’s worst nightmare.

A complete accident led to his daughter, Mahi, wandering out of their family home and falling into a nearby retention pond in 2020.

“By the time we could find her, it was five minutes too late,” Arora said. “I couldn’t wrap my head around how something like this could happen and our research showed that there’s nothing out there on the market that can protect against this. We have a number of fitness devices to monitor our fitness levels, but nothing that protects us against hazards and unintentional injuries.”