Accessibility Investments Database (“AID”)

Access to Success is a Toronto-based not-for-profit organization that supports people with disabilities with a mission to Enable Everyone. It runs ATS Labs, Canada’s only accelerator for accessibility startups, which provides unique programming, services, and resources tailor-made to help scale startups serving people with disabilities. We believe that by accelerating innovation in accessibility, we can significantly push the needle towards a barrier-free Canada.

One of our most crucial challenges is helping our participating startups fundraise. Investors interested in investing in this sector are few and far between, and precedent data is not transparent and extremely hard to find. The result is that each time an entrepreneur sets out to improve the lives of people with disabilities, they spend substantial time and resources simply identifying the right investors. The data insufficiency means that a handful of prominent investors active in the disability sector get overwhelming inbound interest, despite several other funders waiting in the wings.

The proposed BSI project aims to construct the world’s first Accessibility Investments Database (“AID”). This database will systematically chart previous investment activity in startups with a focus on accessibility. It will cross-reference various aspects such as investors, funding stages and amounts, additional terms of the funding round, startup entities, disability categories, and other pertinent information. Having this information on hand will allow us to better serve our entrepreneurs, identify active investors, and help connect the two. It will improve not only ours but the entire disability innovation ecosystem’s understanding of financial activity in this sector.

Faculty Supervisor:

Joel Baum

Student:

Partner:

Access to Success

Discipline:

Business

Sector:

Other services (except public administration)

University:

University of Toronto

Program: