The worldwide assistive innovation market was valued at more than $22 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow significantly by 2030.
Despite the prospective market size, lots of creators developing tech to help individuals with impairments struggle to secure the type of early financing needed to get their companies off the ground in the first place.Adaptation Ventures is a brand-new angel group wanting to fill that financing gap by providing capital to early-stage startups developing availability tech.
It will back startups building tech specifically for persons with specials needs as well as companies with items created for a wider market that likewise assists those populations.The firm was co-founded by couple Brittany Palmer and Rich Palmer (pictured above), both of whom are former start-up creators, angel investors, and persons with disabilities.Brittany informed A Technology NewsRoom she experienced this financing space issue firsthand when she tried to raise capital for her business Beeyonder, a startup that used virtual travel experiences to individuals with disabilities.Venture capital companies actually didnt comprehend the disability community, or how big it was, or the opportunities to offer to them, she stated.
When I was talking with founders in the special needs tech area, there was a similar sort of agreement that a lot of individuals in the startup and venture world truly didnt understand the space.Rich, the former co-founder of Gravyty, found the very same belief while he was working on the investing side as a handling director, and after that angel financier, at Launchpad Venture Group, an angel investing group focused on tech and science-based startups.We understood this opportunity existed, he stated.
We were fulfilling unbelievable creators, and trying to find out the best way to get capital to them.Despite the couples angel investing experience, they initially set out to raise a traditional venture fund and pitched numerous LPs, including impact financiers and high-net-worth people.
While they did see some traction on their original fund concept, a few of that interest dried up alongside the changing narratives in the industry, and beyond, surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion that included the brand-new governmental administration.They also discovered that high-net-worth people were more interested in getting directly involved with the startups in this space, instead of functioning as LPs in a fund, and they started to consider constructing an angel group instead.Weve both benefited from angel financiers who took early bets on us, Rich said.
We are both individuals with specials needs.
We headed out and were finding out that, you understand, there are no angel groups in this area.
Theres no very first cash in thats helping companies receive from point A to point B and its crazy.Adaptation Ventures plans to invest a minimum of $250,000 into each company with the alternative for co-investing too.
The group will hold quarterly meetings that consist of a minimum of four pitches and financiers will vote on which business must make it to the due diligence phase, Brittany said.There are a lot of possible companies that fall under the groups investment technique which Rich referred to as, making the big stuff smaller and the pricey things cheaper.Companies that fit the groups thesis could include something like ReBokeh, a business that develops assistive innovation for people with low vision.
It also consists of business that arent focused on ease of access, however can also assist those with disabilities like Tonal, Rich pointed out as an example, that makes working out more available to those with specials needs that prevent them from holding physical weights.Rich joked that with the sets cumulative decades of experience in the startup and investing world, they have been practicing for this brand-new role for the last 10 years.Im a brain aneurysm survivor, he said.
Ive had momentary and irreversible specials needs as an outcome of that.
[Brittany] is a bilateral amputee.
Its tough not to notice these things or hear these features of us.
So we have brought in founders in this space and invested as angels for the previous several years.
The chances are kind of versus you getting that funding, therefore we nearly needed to do it.