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SubscribeRemarkable is Australia’s first accelerator for early-stage startups creating technology to positively impact life for people with disability.
One in five people in Australia have a disability and Remarkable is on a mission to harness technology to build physical, social and economic inclusion of people with disability.
Their 14 week accelerator program equips early-stage startups with seed funding and the knowledge, skills and tools needed to become commercially viable businesses that have a positive social impact.
The Remarkable program makes for a great case study for ecosystem builders. Beyond creating a more diverse and inclusive space within the startup ecosystem, they operate on a unique funding structure and have implemented a number of innovative initiatives within their program.
The Remarkable program, unsurprisingly has a remarkable origin. It starts with a Turkish man needing a solar powered wheel chair.
In 2012, the Cerebral Palsy Alliance ran a global competition asking people living with a disability:
“What’s one thing we could do to change your world?”
Alper, the Turkish protagonist, relies on the assistance of an electric wheelchair, as Cerebral Palsy limits his movement. Unable to afford to live in the city, he found himself in a remote village, where reliably charging his wheelchair became a real issue. His local mosque was outside the range of his wheelchair battery.
His idea for something that could change his world, was a solar powered wheel chair.
The idea was then used for a global makers competition to design and build the wheelchair. Fast forward a few months and Alpher found himself cruising over to his local mosque in his newly minted solar powered wheelchair, made by a student team from the University of Virginia.
This validated our thinking on the positive impact technology could have in the lives of people living with a disability.
To test the waters and gain further insight into what support founders in the disability tech space needed, they set up a regular meetup group and ran a hackathon. While the hackathon energy was great, it didn’t last beyond the event.
Coinciding with this work, Australia was about to launch a multi-billion dollar National Disability Insurance Scheme.
With a growing market opportunity and advances in technology making solutions more viable, there was growing interest in solving problems for people living with a disability.
Having seen the potential from the Hackathon, the Telstra Foundation (Telstra is a leading telecommunications provider in Australia), approached Pete and the team and asked “what would you do with $500,000?”.
The Remarkable disability-tech accelerator was born.
The $500,000 donation from the Telstra Foundation kick started the program but it became clear pretty early on that this probably wouldn’t be enough to fund the team, startups and program for the 2 year pilot.
The Remarkable team were able to fill the funding gap with a grant from the NSW (State) Government Family & Community Services department.
The funding sources have changed a little over the years. The Telstra Foundation has remained a supporter, along with donations through the Cerebral Palsy Alliance.
Corporate partners like Microsoft have stepped in to help fund the program and they have won innovation awards from Macquarie Bank.
The current principal partner is a foundation of a State managed insurance and care service, iCare.
Being part of a larger organisation also enables the team to lean on some of their back-office functions to help keep things running smoothly.
There have been plenty of challenges along the way but a few that stand out include, ensuring a quality pipeline of startups, providing post accelerator support and retaining great staff.
Operating an accelerator in a niche area limits the size of the pipeline of founders applying.
With a limited number of teams to pick from, maintaining the quality of team and business is always a challenge. On average, 18% of applications are accepted into the program.
Securing further investment for the teams has also proved a challenge. The Australian impact investment space is risk-averse, often wanting to see $1M+ in revenue before wanting to buy-in.
The Remarkable team has had to work hard to educate and advocate for investors to recognise the disability-tech market potential and understanding the problems faced by people living with a disability.
Even when investors see the potential they can get spooked about the market being heavily government funded and they worry that it could disappear at any time.
For startups that complete the program, post-accelerator support has also proven challenging. For those without a sustainable source of revenue, keeping the momentum going forward becomes difficult, particularly when the reality of rent and mortgages kicks in.
Finally, as a not-for-profit organisation funded by foundations and supporters, being able to attract and retain high quality staff on a full-time basis is difficult. While they have been fortunate to have some incredible people working in the team, it is hard to compete with private sector salaries.
While the Remarkable program is less than 6 years old they are seeing some good lead indicators.
The program has invested $4M in the startups that have gone through the program.
These startups have turned that investment into an additional $27.5M in investment and grants, they have helped create ~500 jobs and served over 40,000 customers.
Some standout startups include Loop+ securing $3.2M seed funding, Sound Scouts landing $4M in Federal Government funding and Xceptional who won a $1M prize from Google.
Not to mention, every day the startups backed by Remarkable are using technology to make a positive impact in the lives of people living with a disability.
The program itself has also been featured in World Health Organisation case studies and attracted international interest from investors.
The support from mentors and the growth in the recognition of the brand have been two surprises on the journey to date.
The willingness of mentors to contribute their time to share their knowledge and experience has been a very welcomed surprise.
Many incredible people have stepped forward to give back and pay it forward to the teams. It makes the program and broader Remarkable community that much stronger.
The growth of the Remarkable brand has also been a surprise as it really started as an initiative within the Cerebral Palsy Alliance (CPA). Fast-forward and the brand has come into its own and is a valuable marketing tool to attract supporters and donors to the CPA.
Beyond having a unique focus on disability-tech, the Remarkable team have implemented a number of initiatives to create a world-class accelerator experience.
A central mission for the team is to drive inclusion for people living with a disability.
People living with a disability are put front and centre in the program which enables a close connection to their customer, allowing more input into the program and shaping the startup's product.
Being a not-for-profit organisation, they can also look to expand their support to teams that will have a positive impact and not base it purely on the market opportunity.
Mental health support for the founders and teams has also become a core focus. In the last program they had someone on the team responsible for mental health of the teams and organised multiple information and support sessions. In the upcoming program they are taking this further with a buddy system for regular founder-founder check ins.
Finally, the Remarkable team puts a lot of effort into making their mentors feel special. One way they do this is to hold a special event during the program where they have the opportunity to network with each other and hear from incredibly inspiring guest speakers who are living with a disability.
There are plans in motion to launch a global alliance of disability-tech accelerators. Organisations in the UK, Canada, India, Kenya, New Zealand and Australia have partnered to form an inclusive innovation network.
Closer to home, the Remarkable team has plans in motion to help grow the pipeline of disability-tech startups, create new funding opportunities for their startups through crowd-funding and initiatives to provide additional post-accelerator support.
Initially the teams in the program were given a $20,000 grant. Given the Remarkable program is part of the Cerebral Palsy Alliance, internally selling the concept of taking equity and getting the right structures in place to do so, would have been very time consuming.
By initially providing a grant it enabled the team to get the program up and running quickly and demonstrate value to the key stakeholders.
For the past two years, the program has taken 5% equity in exchange for $35,000 investment.
Reach out to Pete & the team at hello@remarkable.org.au
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