Founded by Pete Horsley in 2016 as a division Cerebral Palsy Alliance, Remarkable is a one-of-a-kind startup accelerator, supporting entrepreneurs creating transformative change and technological innovation for people with disability.
The annual 16-week accelerator has seen 25 graduates such as Sound Scouts, Xceptional and Loop+ accessed $22.3M in grants and funding.
Founder Pete Horsley said, “Working in disability service for over 10 years, I saw first hand how clunky the technology was and how desperately the market needed disruption. I started Remarkable because I could see the obvious intersection between technology and social impact that needed to be filled.”
According to the World Health Organisation, 1 in 5 of us, or 1.3 billion people, have some form of disability. About 1 billion of those need an assistive device.
“Access to well-designed and intuitive technology is a huge contributor to breaking down the barriers many people with a disability face. We know that robotics, sensor technology, AI and wearables can be really powerful in overcoming some of these barriers. We are looking for exceptional founders ready to take on this market with excellent technology and create transformative change for people across the world.”
Remarkable came about soon after the Federal government started rolling out the National Disability Insurance Scheme nationally which saw the shaping up of a market, without easily identifiable technology to fill the gap.
The Accelerator offers seed funding, weekly masterclasses, networking, mentorship and gateways to investors, with the enrolled entrepreneurs working out of Fishburners alongside Remarkable over the 4 month period.
Pete said, “We joined Fishburners in 2018 because of the community. We had run events in the Fishburners space in the past and we knew the people in the building made it so much more than a coworking space. We wanted all our startups to be in the same environment.”
The Remarkable Accelerator is run over 16 weeks, with successful applicants receiving $35,000, weekly masterclasses, networking, mentorship and opportunity to pitch to investors.
The 2020 program starts in the third week of March this year with applications closing close on February 1st.
