Autism startup Kite Therapy secures $750,000 to help families

Melbourne-based autism support startup Kite Therapy has secured $750,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by Flying Fox Ventures.

LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund also supported the round, along with Startmate and angel investor Josh Masters, the former senior director of strategy at disability startup Hireup.

Kite Therapy was founded by Rachelle Dunstan, Matthew Morrison and Gregor Whyte to help more families access support for children with autism and developmental delays.

Designed for children aged between one and six years old, Kite Therapy offers access to weekly telehealth consults with therapist-coaches, who work with both children and their parents to support the child’s communication, social, motor and behaviour skills via personalised plans.

The platform also includes an app, which parents can use to connect with their therapist coach and seek feedback, along with personalised content modules.

Dunstan previously worked at disability support marketplace Hireup and has seen firsthand how long families are currently waiting to access support for their children, particularly in regional areas.

At the same time, the high costs of intensive therapy mean many families cannot afford to access the support they need.

“In Australia today, we have a chronic shortage of allied health therapists; the costs of intensive therapy can exceed $200,000 a year, and in regional Australia, there are often no services at all,” explained Dunstan in a statement provided to SmartCompany.

“It’s common for families to spend years on waitlists to access support and miss their children’s critical windows of development. Access to quality, holistic, and timely therapy ensures a child can flourish to the best of their potential.”

Kite Therapy plans to use the funding to hire more therapists and support more families with its unique ‘train the trainer’ model, which encourages parents and caregivers to incorporate simple, naturalistic therapies into their existing family routines.

The startup says this approach means each hour of coaching provided by Kite therapists can then ‘unlock’ many more hours of home-led therapy by parents and carers.

LaunchVic CEO Dr Kate Cornick described Kite Therapy as a “purpose-led company with a huge addressable market”.

“We first came across Rachelle [Dunstan] as a founder to watch in August 2023 through the F4: Female Founders program, funded by LaunchVic, to encourage more Victorian women to pursue their startup ideas. A few months later, Flying Fox applied for funding as Kite’s lead investor through our sidecar fund,” she said in a statement.

LaunchVic gets $40 million to support more startups like Kite Therapy

Kite Therapy is the latest startup to join the growing ranks of Victorian startups supported by LaunchVic, which on Tuesday received $40 million in funding in the state’s 2024-25 budget.

The government said in the budget papers that the refunding, which will cover the next four years, will ensure LaunchVic can “continue fostering the capabilities and confidence of future innovators, creators and entrepreneurs”.

The organisation will aim to support 142 companies and market entrants over the next financial year, with a particular focus on empowering women-founded startups.

However, the budget papers indicate a strategic change within the Alice Anderson Fund, LaunchVic’s $10 million sidecar fund dedicated to startups founded by women, and the fund that is supporting Kite Therapy.

As previously reported by SmartCompany, the fund counts investments in 33 portfolio companies in 2023-2024 but will set a target of five held investments from 2024-2025 onwards.

The news of the refunding was endorsed by many in the Victorian startup ecosystem on Tuesday who responded enthusiastically to a LinkedIn post from LaunchVic’s Cornick.

Cornick said in LaunchVic’s eight years of operations, the state’s startup numbers have more than tripled, to more than 3,400 companies, and the value of the sector has grown from $5.6 billion in 2016 to $103 billion in 2023.

“Startups drive new industries, create high-value jobs and support economic growth – all of which will lead to a more prosperous and resilient Victoria,” she added.

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