Victoria’s childhood health and wellbeing has been a state priority for decades – but with about a quarter of the state’s children overweight (Australian Bureau of Statistics), there is more that can be done.
While schools, parents and government agencies have all focused on education programs and supporting healthy lifestyle choices, we believe that Victoria’s brightest business people also play an important role in finding forward-thinking new solutions to one of the larger public health problems of our time. help solve.
Melbourne has been named one of the best Life Sciences startup ecosystems in the world time and time again. It’s obvious that we have a stronghold of entrepreneurs and startup founders equipped with innovative and sustainable ideas that can solve the state’s health problems, while also creating jobs, making profits and positively impacting our communities.
The key to unlocking these big ideas is making sure we connect entrepreneurs with the government agencies that can help bring their businesses to market.
We’ve seen governments and startups achieve incredible results before, like when startup founder Zoe Condliffe launched She’s a Crowd – a platform that digitally maps gender-based harassment in cities around the world.
Her data is used by Victoria’s Department of Transport to help make Melbourne a safer place for women and gender-diverse people.
We’ve also seen community-led startups like MyGigsters partner with Worksafe Victoria to help improve safety standards in the gig economy. And similarly, EnergyTech startups like Victorian clean energy retailer Amber Electric have emerged to tackle the climate crisis.
Improving the health of our children thus represents another great challenge and opportunity for Victorian entrepreneurs.
Pre-accelerator program
Therefore VicHealth and Victoria’s leading startup agency LaunchVic collaborated to roll out the CivVic Labs pre-accelerator program. Its six-week program aims to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to solve the major health problems facing young people in Victoria.
It has made startups, including She’s a Crowd, a foot in the door of government services.
And this time, it will play a vital role in bringing startups to the forefront of public health and encouraging startups to seize the opportunity with both hands.
CivVic Labs is an opportunity for 15 of Victoria’s most ambitious entrepreneurs to think boldly about solving the health crisis, backed by $10,000 in equity-free funding.
Founders will then have the opportunity to request an additional $25,000 in seed funding to bring their idea to market.
As Victoria’s startup ecosystem continues to grow, LaunchVic is focused on making government procurement as easy as possible for founders through programs like CivVic Labs. Not only for the sake of the economy and jobs, but also for the improvement of the health of young people and a better future.
Applications for the LaunchVic x VicHealth CivVic program will remain open through May 30.
Apply at: launchvic.org/civvic-labs
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