LaunchVic is on the hunt for budding startup founders to tackle key health issues facing young people

Victoria’s startup agency LaunchVic, is partnering with the state’s health authority VicHealth to harness the power of entrepreneurship and innovation to tackle of the key health issues of young people with a new accelerator program.

The VicHealth X LaunchVic CivVic Challenge is looking for aspiring founders and early stage startups keen to find solutions that address healthy eating and food advertising pushing unhealthy options to young people.

As a part of CivVic Labs by LaunchVic, selected founders participate in a pre accelerator experience where they will co-design and test their solutions with VicHealth policy experts, supported by mentor networks and business acceleration workshops, and receive $10,000 in equity-free funding. 

At the end of the six-week program, founders have the chance to apply for a further $25,000 in seed funding to bring their idea to market. 

Applications are now open for the CivVic Challenge, which is on the hunt for 15 innovators to prototype solutions for these two challenges: 

• Improving young people’s access to healthy food in their community
• Exposing unhealthy food advertising targeted at young people 

LaunchVic CEO Dr Kate Cornick said HealthTech is Victoria’s largest startup subsector, with 1 in 5 startups working in the space, and the VicHealth partnership would  support the next generation of founders entering the sector.  

“CivVic Labs brings startup thinking to social problems and gives aspiring founders  a chance to test out a business idea with a real end-user,” she said.  

“For government, the program provides a unique and tailored access point for  early-stage startups into Victoria’s $10.5 billion early-stage startup ecosystem and  insight into lean startup methodology.” 

VicHealth CEO Dr Sandro Demaio said startups have an important role to play in  HealthTech innovation.  

“This is a fantastic opportunity to apply startup and co-design principles to drive  youth-led solutions that address some of the biggest health challenges facing our  kids,” he said.  

“We can’t wait to hear from Victoria’s startup community to help us build a healthy Victoria where young people can thrive.”  

To apply and for further details on the CivVic Challenge, see launchvic.org/civvic-labs.