The coronavirus pandemic has badly hurt start-up funding while simultaneously accelerating the interest in all things wellness. The toll COVID-19 has also taken on humanity and the uncertainty it has created has reinforced the need to prioritize health, wellness, and happiness.
Welltech1, an Israeli wellness technology fund, in partnership with the Global Wellness Institute’s The Wellness Moonshot, will award up to $200K to start-ups with the innovative ideas in wellness, healthy living, and disease prevention we’ll need most in a pandemic and post-pandemic world.
“We felt it was a critical time to launch this initiative: The Coronavirus crisis has hurt overall seed-stage funding for start-ups (down 22 percent in 2020), but has also intensely accelerated the importance of wellness and prevention—and how technology can deliver it. For instance, global VC funding for digital health companies doubled in Q1 2020 over Q4 2019, while funding for mental health/wellness companies jumped 65 percent year-over-year,” said Amir Alroy, co-founder, Welltech1. “We’re delighted that The Wellness Moonshot: A World Free of Preventable Disease has joined us as part of their constant efforts to create a healthier world.”
“We’re thrilled that our Moonshot partner in Israel has put this money on the table to offer companies across the wellness technology space much-needed investment in a time of both unprecedented crisis and opportunity,” noted Nancy Davis, GWI’s Chief Creative Officer and Executive Director and one of the start-up evaluators. “Wellness, which we define as the personal, proactive and prevention-focused pursuit of healthy activities and lifestyles (self-care versus healthcare), has become radically more important to people during COVID-19. This fund will spur the new ideas we need now and in a post-virus world.”
The start-ups will be chosen together with industry leaders from Pepsico, Global Wellness Institute, Facebook, Nike, IFF, Harel Insurance, Smart Group, Legia Warsaw, Viola Ventures, ESOP Excellence, ZAG S&W Law Firm, SZ Financial Consulting Firm, SolaVieve, and the Welltech1 advisory board.
Applications are open; the deadline is Monday, May 18, 2020.
