Early stage investment company Antler Australia recently backed a new cohort of startups as part of its ongoing program to build great local tech companies.
Startup Daily is sharing the details of each venture in the “Antler Investor Memos” series, which is designed to give you a quick, sharp understanding of the startups and people involved, with many seeking follow up capital following Antler’s initial pre-seed investment.
Company: Spoony
Founded: August 2024
Stage: Pre-seed
Founders: Nicholas Carlton (CEO) and Kenneth Liang (CTO)
Current investors: Antler
Currently raising: Yes
The Business
One in six of the world’s population live with a disability. This makes this group of people the world’s largest minority. With population growth, medical advances and the ageing process, this figure is only increasing, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Along with that, neurodivergent, chronically ill, and disabled people are among the biggest consumers of healthcare services in the world. In Australia alone, $60 billion annually is expected to be spent under the National Disability Insurance Scheme by 2030.
With this in mind, neurodivergent, chronically ill, and disabled people experience a disproportionately high degree of social isolation and existing social networks – often designed to solve this problem for the general population – only amplify these experiences as key accessibility features and design is usually an afterthought.
Spoony co-founder CEO Nicholas Carlton experienced this first-hand after becoming chronically ill and disabled. He went from travelling around the country for half the year, leading a national team to suddenly being unable to get out of bed and eventually he stopped work completely. At the age of 32, Nick found himself cut off from the world and experiencing profound social isolation.
This experience led him to the idea of Spoony, a community platform for neurodivergent, chronically ill, and disabled people.
Paired with his co-founder and CTO Kenneth Liang, who brings technical and domain expertise, having previously worked for successful Aussie startups Shippit and Mable (a leading NDIS support app), the duo have a bold new vision to collide the power of community with healthcare support to make it easy to connect with friends, therapists, healthcare providers, and disability support workers.
Antler investment thesis
“Spoony stands out from other platforms,” says Mike Abbott, General Partner at Antler in Australia.
“Nick and Kenneth have a very credible vision to seamlessly blend social connection with health management, offering a deep understanding of this community’s needs. Competitors either focus on social niches like dating or exist purely as utilities.
“Along with having great team-product-fit with a founder who has lived experience within the problem space, at the time of investment the team had built a great MVP, the beta launch was off to a strong start and had encouraging early engagement metrics, and the platform was very much global from day one.
“What we also love about Spoony is that it’s just a product; it’s a movement aimed at empowering a marginalised community by creating a sense of belonging. This in itself sets it apart from other digital platforms.”
Traction/milestones
Since launching its beta, Spoony has quickly attracted 26,000 users to its waitlist and soft launched with 1,200 users.
During this beta testing, Spoony also discovered that users engage with the platform an average of 3.5 times a day, and report a 25% decrease in loneliness.Along with that, the team is creating content that has gone viral on Tik Tok, achieving millions of views.
Latest funding
Pre-Seed from Antler
Use of Funds
Spoony will use Antler’s investment to supercharge its product development and scale its presence globally.
The business is also gearing up for a major launch on both iOS and Android and plans to use Antler’s Pre-See investment to drive user acquisition, marketing campaigns, and strategic partnerships to extend its reach and engage with a wider audience.
The founders say
“The cultural zeitgeist is running hot,” says Spoony co-founder and CEO Nicholas Carlton.
“One of the gifts of COVID has been the spotlight on chronic illness and disability, in particular. Once taboo topics, are now part of the cultural discourse.
“More and more people are identifying as being part of the neurodivergent, chronically ill, and disabled community, and we think this is the right product for this moment.
“Spoony unlocks tremendous value for users, by creating a space where peer-to-peer support sits on a continuum alongside therapeutic and even clinical support.
“Imagine therapists being able to publicly share tips and advice about managing autism and ADHD… and then imagine being able to book a session with that therapist. Imagine group therapy sessions, where participants can make friends and support each other between sessions.
“Working with Antler has been an incredible experience. Their guidance has allowed us to refine our product strategy, making it VC-backable. Mike’s encouragement has inspired us to think big and set ambitious goals as we move forward into the future.”
What’s next?
Antler, a global early-stage VC, is revealing its latest investments in ambitious Australian founders and startups. With over 100 investments in early-stage companies, Spoony is one of its most recent portfolio companies.
- StartupDaily is the official media partner of Antler in Australia.
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