HAX today announced the launch of an initiative targeted at helping startups advance the state of tech for people over the age of 65. The program was developed in conjunction with Centrica, the energy company behind the newly launched Hive Link, a smart home service for people with elderly family members.
The program will invest $250,000 in the startups it selects, including mentoring, office space, education and the like, in exchange for equity in the companies — a pretty standard setup for the San Francisco/Shenzhen-based accelerator.
As HAX notes in a related press release, the U.S. population is aging. Studies put today’s 47.8 million population of people over age 65 at 78 million in the year 2035.
“HAX has invested in over 200 high-tech startups over the past six years, and we were looking for the right partner to tackle this immense challenge,” partner Kate Whitcomb said in a release tied to the news. “We want to find the right sensors, service robots, or diagnostic devices that can help us age gracefully, and avoid $100 problems turning into $100,000 ones.”
Applications for the program are currently open through the HAX site. Interested parties need to provide a prototype of their project and be willing to relocate to either San Francisco or Shenzhen. It’s a great opportunity to grow a much-needed hardware sector and help improve the availability of tech for good, through a focused accelerator program.
Written by Brian Heater
This news first appeared on https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/25/hax-launches-an-accelerator-program-for-senior-tech/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29 under the title “HAX launches an accelerator program for senior tech”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
