The global assistive technology market was valued at over $22 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow significantly by 2030. Despite the potential for market size, many founders are projected to build technology to help people with disabilities struggle to secure the early funding needed to acquire the company first.
Adaptation Ventures is a new angel group that hopes to bridge the funding gap by providing capital to early-stage startups building accessibility technologies. Help startups build technology specifically for people with disabilities and companies with products designed for the broader market.
The company was co-founded by married couples Brittany Palmer and Rich Palmer (pictured above). Both are former startup founders, angel investors and disabled people.
Brittany said he firsthand experienced this funding gap issue when he tried to raise capital for Beeyonder, a startup that provides virtual travel experiences for people with disabilities.
“Venture capital companies really didn't understand the disability community, how big it was, the opportunity to sell to them,” she said. “When I was talking to the founders of the Disabled Technology field, there was a similar kind of consensus that many people in the startup and venture world really didn't understand space.”
Rich, a former co-founder of Gravyty, discovered the same sentiment while working on the investment side as managing director. Then Engy Investor, LaunchPad Venture Group, Angel Investing Group focusing on technology and science-based startups.
“I knew this opportunity existed,” he said. “We were meeting the incredible founders and trying to find the best way to get funding them.”
Despite the couple's experience in angel investment, they initially set out to raise traditional venture funds and pitched numerous LPs, including impact investors and wealthy people. They saw some traction in the original fund's ideas, but some of that interest was drained alongside the changing narrative of the industry surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion that comes with the new presidential administration.
They also found that high-net individuals were more interested in directly involved in startups in this field rather than serving as LPS in the fund, and instead began thinking about building angel groups.
“We both benefited from the angel investors who bet on us early,” Rich said. “We are both people with disabilities. We went out. We're learning that there are no angel groups in this field. There's no initial money to help businesses get from point A to point B.
Adaptation Ventures plans to invest a minimum of $250,000 in each company using the co-investment option. The group will hold quarterly meetings with a minimum of four pitches, and investors will vote on which companies will reach the due diligence stage, Brittany said.
There are many potential companies that fall under the group's investment strategy described by Rich, making the big one smaller and the expensive one cheaper.
Companies that fit the group's papers may include things like Rebokeh, a company that builds assistive technology for people with low vision. They also include companies that do not focus on accessibility but mention examples of people with disabilities like Tone, or people with disabilities like Rich.
Rich joked that he has been practicing this new role for the past decades in the pair's startup and investment world.
“I am a survivor of a cerebral aneurysm,” he said. “The result was a temporary and permanent disability. [Brittany] I am a bilateral amputee. It's hard not to notice these things and not to hear these things about us. So we have attracted founders in this field and invested as angels for the past few years. We had to do that because it's kind of odds to you for getting that funding. ”