Member Article

Innovative Leeds-based Accelerator Programme Helping Start-Ups to Succeed

Elmwood LaunchPod, an accelerator programme run by Elmwood, the world’s most effective brand design consultancy, has signed up four successful participants to take part in its 12-week programme which starts in September. Engagify, Dietary Assessment Ltd and Shift.ms will join recently announced maiden entrepreneurs accepted on the first programme, DigiBete.

The accelerator is aimed at promoting the development of start-ups, offering support to entrepreneurs looking to scale-up their operations, while also investing in the economic prospects of the region. The programme will shape the direction of businesses and foster community collaboration with creativity and technology at the core. Elmwood’s inaugural programme is focused on start-ups who are innovating how people connect with their health and with the healthcare system.

Leeds-based Engagify Ltd is developing an AI solution called Sayge, to support employee mental health 24/7 on a global scale. According to mental health charity Mind, one in four people will experience mental ill-health each year. This has a huge financial cost for UK employers with mental health-related absences alone estimated at £26 billion annually. Founded by wellbeing Expert, Fabiola Detari, the team of four have a mission to inspire positive psycho-social wellbeing in organisations to overcome mental health stigma in the workplace.

Dietary Assessment Ltd, based in Leeds, was founded by Professor Janet Cade to tackle diet-related disease. The company has developed an online tool, myfood24, which allows researchers, teachers and health professionals such as dietitians to monitor diet and analyse food and drink consumption to help reduce obesity-related conditions and manage diseases such as diabetes. In addition to the UK, myfood24 is being used in the Australian, German and Danish markets with plans to develop an eHealth tool for health professionals and individuals to help reduce and better manage diet-related disease.

Shift.ms, a registered UK charity, provides a free social network for people with multiple sclerosis. Founded by George Pepper and Freddie Yauner, following George’s diagnosis with MS at the age of 22, Shift.ms supports many thousands of people across the world as they make sense of MS. The charity also runs the patient-led video interview format ‘MS Reporters’. This initiative gives patients direct access to expert health information. Shift.ms train volunteers with MS to become citizen reporters, interviewing professional experts on topics centred around the MS communities’ unmet needs and interests. The result is a video library of patient-driven expert knowledge. Patients are better informed and have more confidence to manage their own health.

DigiBete is an award-winning, free to access patient-centred video sharing platform and educational resource about Type 1 Diabetes. Created by two parents, Maddie and Rob Julian, in full collaboration with the Leeds Paediatric Diabetes Team after the diagnosis of their son aged just 20 months, the DigiBete platform is co-designed with families and healthcare professionals to help support children, young people and families self-manage their Type 1 Diabetes.

Each week, participants will receive specialist insight from a world-class community of marketers and creative designers and free workspace at Elmwood’s creative and dynamic studio in Leeds (United Kingdom). The programme will cover areas that include a series of group-based workshops, 1:1 coaching and support from experts and mentoring in a real setting in collaboration with Elmwood and its partners.

Sarah Dear, managing partner at Elmwood and managing director of Elmwood LaunchPod, commented: “We are excited to welcome an amazing group of talented entrepreneurs who share Elmwood’s passion for innovative thinking and design. These organisations are using creativity and technology to address real health problems and shape the future of healthcare and consumer health experiences. Working collaboratively, we can support the drive and commitment these entrepreneurs possess and help them scale up and reach their next level of growth.”

The results of a recent survey commissioned by Elmwood to understand the importance people place on proactively managing their health and wellbeing found that 87% of respondents believe that individuals should take a more proactive approach to manage their own health and wellbeing. The survey findings show the huge gap in the market for creative healthcare. Elmwood LaunchPod is an accelerator aimed to develop businesses that fill this precise gap. Working with innovative start-ups, Elmwood LaunchPod is a 12-week accelerator which aims to help consumer health businesses to grow and use ‘design thinking’ to revolutionise the healthcare industry. Full survey results can be found on the LaunchPod website.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Helen Spivey .