UN Women Showcase Asia-Pacific Care Industry Startups in Online Demo Day

Meet the most promising startups that are transforming care work into inclusive opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region

The UN Women Care Accelerator programme concluded with an online demo day, showcasing 13 Asia-Pacific startups with a focus on developing solutions for the Care-Economy. For more information about the startups, visit careaccelrator.seedstars.com.

Women in the Asia-Pacific are seen as the center of the family, responsible for taking care of the household and taking on a disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work responsibilities. Research shows that unpaid care also emerges as a critical reason why women do not participate in paid work. This is especially prevalent in the Asia-Pacific region, which is the only region globally in which women’s participation in the labour force has been declining the past 10 years.

The accelerator aimed to identify and support entrepreneurs who are creating innovative solutions that help to make care services more accessible, affordable and increase the quality of child and elderly care services provided. In turn, these solutions have the potential to create decent work opportunities for caregivers and provide an opportunity for many women and their families to have a caregiving solution allowing them to fully take part in the workforce.

The UN Women Care Accelerator provided enterprises with a 4-month intensive training programme to build more sustainable and gender-inclusive business strategies. At the demo day, all participating startups had the opportunity to present their business strategies to potential investors and care ecosystem stakeholders such as mentors, investors, speakers, NGOs and international organizations.

“The Care Accelerator has really opened our eyes to the possibilities that ‘Care Entrepreneurship’ can offer to create decent employment opportunities and also improve affordability, access and quality of care services. However it will require strong collaboration with policymakers and corporates alike to create an inclusive care economy.” said Katja Freiwald Regional Programme Manager WeEmpowerAsia UN Women.

The demo day is the official culmination of the UN Women Care Accelerator program, presented by UN Women, WeEmpowerAsia, European Union, Bopinc and co-organized by Seedstars, where each startup got to pitch their product and share their progress. After the pitching, all the companies also participated in 1:1 meetings with investors and partners.

Demo day featured the following startups from the UN Women Care Accelerator programme:

• LoveCare saves clients time by matching them with the perfect carer that fits their needs and preferences in less than 5 minutes.
• Kiddocare gives the tools to millions of freelance caregivers and nurses throughout Asia to better care for their clients while helping them grow their businesses through technology.
• Pillar Health develops highly scalable tools that help independent care providers work more efficiently and operate their care services more effectively.
• Nannyz matches nannies and babysitters with families in the area.
• Kiidu is a care platform to find the most suitable nannies and caregivers in Thailand.
• Aseana Caregivers connects parents with trained, vetted and certified Malaysian babysitters, for personalized on-demand childcare.
• Carer provides caregivers the most comprehensive in-home nursing help and guidance.
• Ayat Care facilitates empowerment without boundaries by providing care and coaching exactly where it is needed and beneficial.
• Bihani Social Venture provides age inclusive services with a focus on mental and physical well-being for older people in Nepal.
• Mobiva empowers older people to live independently longer, healthier and safer while providing peace of mind to their families.
• JobNukkad is an online portal in India that helps families connect with caregivers in their locality without paying commission to an agency: it is cheap and fast.
• TiTLi unlocks livelihood opportunities for millions of women by helping them become skilled early childhood educators and caregivers.
• Angels & I provides a proprietary educational curriculum and certification for nannies to take care and educate children at home.

"We’ve been working with the founders on a weekly basis for the past four months and it’s so rewarding to see this clear business growth as well as their progress in becoming more gender inclusive, as reflected in their pitches. A special thank you goes to our mentors, who have been supporting the founders through this intense, but extremely valuable journey," said Seedstars Acceleration Program Manager Eugenia Schevchenko.

After two pitching sessions the jury, consisting of: Christina Teo, Chief Builder at she1K; Konstantin Hapkemeyer, Investment Manager Africa & Asia at Seedstars; Katja Freiwald Regional Programme Manager at WeEmpowerAsia; and Paul Ark, Partner & Head of ESG at Gobi Partners, decided on two grant winners. Kiddocare and Lovecare will receive USD 5,000 each to support the building of a more inclusive care industry in Asia-Pacific. The grant was provided by WeEmpowerAsia and Seedstars.

In case you missed the demo day and want to see the pitches or request a meeting with one of the founders, visit careaccelrator.seedstars.com.

WeEmpowerAsia is a UN Women programme funded by and in partnership with the European Union that seeks to increase the number of women who lead and participate in business in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. For more information, visit http://weempowerasia.org.

UN Women is a global champion for gender equality, working to develop and uphold standards and create an environment in which every woman and girl can exercise her human rights and live up to her full potential. UN Women is a trusted partner of advocates and decision-makers from all walks of life, and it is a leader in the effort to achieve gender equality.

The European Union is made up of 27 Member States that have decided to gradually link together their know-how, resources and destinies. Together, during a 50-year period of enlargement, they have built a zone of stability, democracy and sustainable development while maintaining cultural diversity, tolerance and individual freedoms.

Seedstars is a private company based in Switzerland with a mission to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship. The group’s activities cover emerging ecosystems in more than 90 cities through a variety of initiatives: the FTxSDG Challenge, previously known as the Seedstars World Competition, the largest entrepreneurship competition in emerging markets; Seedstars programmes designed to support entrepreneurs in varying stages of growth via training, education, mentoring and access to resources; Seedstars 01 talent incubator providing digital skills and startup-based immersive education for the next generation of changemakers; Seedspace coworking spaces and hubs located in 15 countries; and Seedstars International, a global venture capital fund for seed stage startups. For more information, visit www.seedstars.com.

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