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 the labour force. This is especially prevalent in the Asia Pacific region, which is the only region globally in which women participation in the labour force declines year on year.

The accelerator aimed to identify and support entrepreneurs who leverage to create 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 care-giving solution and therefore allow them to fully take part in the workforce while also providing other women with decent work opportunities.

The UN Women Care Accelerator provided the enterprises with a 4-month intensive training programme to build more sustainable and gender-inclusive business strategies. At the Demo-Day , alle 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 opportunity ‘Care-Entrepreneurship’ offers to create decent employment opportunities,and improve affordability, access and quality of care-services, - however it will require strong collaboration with policy-makers 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.

The startups who participated in the Demo Day are as follows:

• Lovecare saves clients time by matching them with the perfect carer that fits their needs and preferences in less than 5 minutes.
• Kiddocare is giving millions of freelance caregivers and nurses throughout Asia the tools to better care for their clients while helping them grow their businesses through technology.
• Pillar Health is developing tools that help independent care providers work more efficiently and operate their care services more effectively with a highly scalable solution from a team with significant experience in scaling health tech platforms. .
• Nannyz is matching nannies and babysitters with families in the area.
• Kiidu is the go-to care platform to find the most suitable nannies and caregivers in Thailand.
• Aseana Caregivers connect parents with trained, vetted, and certified Malaysian babysitters, for personalized on-demand childcare.
• Carer provides caregivers the most comprehensive nursing help and guidance when caring for others at home.
• Ayat Care is facilitating empowerment without boundaries by providing care and coaching exactly where it is needed and beneficial.
• Bihani Social Venture is providing age inclusive services with focus on mental and physical well-being for elders in Nepal.
• Mobiva is empowering older adults 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 is unlocking livelihood opportunities for millions of women by helping them become skilled Early Childhood educators and caregivers!
• Angels & I provides a certified nanny with a proprietary educational curriculum to take care and educate children at home.

“We’ve been working with the founders on a weekly base for the past four months and it’s so rewarding to see this clear growth business-wise as well as their progress inbecoming more gender inclusive companies 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 the 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 receive five thousand dollars 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 hop on to careaccelrator.seedstars.com.

***

ABOUT WEEMPOWERASIA

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

ABOUT UN WOMEN

UN Women is the 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. We are trusted partners for advocates and decision-makers from all walks of life, and a leader in the effort to achieve gender equality.

ABOUT THE EUROPEAN UNION

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

ABOUT SEEDSTARS

"They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds." - Mexican proverb

Seedstars is a Swiss-based private company with a mission to impact people’s lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship. The group’s activities cover over 90 emerging ecosystems through a variety of initiatives such as the FTxSDG Challenge, previously known as the Seedstars World Competition, which is the largest entrepreneurship competition in emerging markets; Seedstars Programs that are designed to support entrepreneurs in varying stages of growth via training, education, mentoring, and access to resources; Seedstars 01, a talent incubator providing digital skills and startup-based immersive education for the next generation of changemakers; Seedspace, physical 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.

CONTACTS

Program

Eugenia Shevchenko

Acceleration Program Manager

[email protected]

Media

Michaela Villaroman
Media Relations

[email protected]