Slingshot has opened applications for its second HCF Catalyst accelerator program, which aims to help healthtech startups by making healthcare more affordable and understandable, delivering high-quality healthcare as well as making healthcare more customer-centric.
Slingshot supplies large corporates with world-class innovation programs and brings corporates together with small disruptive startups and entrepreneurs who are building innovative and potentially market-changing technologies.
Their corporate innovation programs provide entrepreneurs with finance, mentorship and a dynamic work environment that stimulate creativity and productivity. The rigorous, rapid programs are known to achieve commercial results. Slingshot is delivering these programs to some of Australia’s and global leading brands, including the HCF.
Established in 1932, HCF is Australia’s leading provider for a range of health insurance products and services, also providing products across life, travel and pet insurance.
The HCF Catalyst accelerator program is a three-month program that will commence in 2017 and will provide an opportunity for participants to receive up to $150,000 in funding, with the Slingshot Venture Fund investing $50,000 for 10 percent equity, and any other investment terms on a case-by-case basis.
The accelerator program has been created by some of the most successful startup entrepreneurs and mentors in Australia. The 12-week intensive program is designed to help startups develop and design their business model; help the business create a product or service that customers want; build a minimum viable product (MVP); communicate progress to advisors and investors, and help businesses gain the traction and investment that they need.
Slingshot co-founder Craig Lambert explained earlier this year that the sustainability of the Slingshot model lies in its partnerships with corporates. He explains,
We’ve got a corporate there contributing to building the accelerator and making it run as well as possible. It also brings customers to the table; we wouldn’t run an open accelerator without that corporate involvement because that monetization allows you to run a much more significant program. We pay mentors, we can put on better events, we can invest a lot of that corporate money back into the startups, so they’ll all be corporately driven.
The startup launched its app three months ago and has 20 clients in the healthcare space, including its first international customer— Hong Kong’s Integrated Oncology Center.
Applications for the HCF Catalyst program close on November 25. Shortlisted startups will be invited to pitch their ideas at Atlassian’s Sydney headquarters in early December.
