Techstars Future of Longevity Accelerator Brings Fresh Ideas to Care for Aging

Pivotal Ventures, in partnership with Techstars, the worldwide network that helps entrepreneurs succeed, has launched the Techstars Future of Longevity Accelerator. The new accelerator will work with startups to bring to life innovative and creative caregiving solutions to address the unmet needs of people providing and receiving elder care. By supporting the development of new caregiving products, services and solutions for families, we believe we can create a world in which caregivers don’t have to choose between participating fully in the workforce and caring for their loved ones, and those who are aging can live with dignity and have the support they want and need.

The Opportunity for New Caregiving Solutions

As a part of our mission to advance social progress in the U.S., Pivotal Ventures is seeking to help spark and nurture an innovation ecosystem that designs and delivers quality and affordable caregiving solutions for American families. Developing market and public policy solutions will be essential to removing caregiving as a barrier to full participation in the workforce and society, especially for women. Creating a care system that works for providers and recipients will also be critical to expanding women’s power and influence.

To better understand how U.S. families are caring for each other, Pivotal Ventures supported the LIKE WE CARE project—a year-long investigation into the way families provide care, the work of running households, and much more. The findings underscored that, at a time when 10,000 baby boomers are turning 65 each day—and many will be cared for by an unpaid family member—addressing the caregiving needs of the aging population is both an urgent need, and an opportunity for innovation. In fact, a 2015 study conducted by the National Caregiving Alliance and the AARP Public Policy Institute found that approximately 34.2 million Americans provided unpaid care to an adult age 50 or older in the prior 12 months.

Game-Changing Elder Care Technology Will Help

The Techstars Future of Longevity Accelerator is an opportunity to identify great ideas and help to maximize their potential. This 13-week accelerator program, based in Washington, D.C., will accept 10 startups each year and help them develop their businesses through financial support, hands-on mentorship, and world-class programming, which will improve the startup's ability to scale and reach the greatest number of families in need of solutions. Startups will gain access to a valuable network of mentors—including investors, corporate executives, experienced founders, and thought leaders.

We believe that transformational ideas come from everywhere and that technology solutions have the potential to improve quality of life for aging people and caregivers alike. For example, in addition to Techstars, Pivotal Ventures recently invested in Papa, a “grandkids on demand” service that connects seniors with young people to help them accomplish daily tasks while giving young people flexible work opportunities.

Getting Involved with Techstars Future of Longevity Accelerator

Applications to join the Techstars Future of Longevity Accelerator are currently open through May 10, 2020. The accelerator will run in Washington, D.C. from September 7, 2020 through December 3, 2020, and will culminate in a Demo Day where participating companies will pitch their businesses to investors and industry leaders.

If you have cutting-edge ideas and are interested in applying to be a part of the Future of Longevity Accelerator, visit the Techstars Future of Longevity Accelerator program page for more information.