December 2025 Newsletter

As we head into the New Year, we are filled with gratitude that we are able to champion mission-driven founders who bring extraordinary insight to their work – often through personal disability affinity or deep research. Alongside our incredible limited partners and investors, we recognize the potential for fueling innovation that will define the next decade of both scale and impact – and are excited for the year ahead.

In this newsletter you will find exciting updates, key highlights from the past quarter, a dose of inspiration, and a sneak peek at what is ahead.

Our Value Proposition

Adaptation Ventures is a pioneering pre-seed fund dedicated to fueling tech innovation in disability and accessible technology. We're tapping a massive, underserved market and catalyzing venture-scale returns in an $18 trillion market that touches nearly everyone:

• 2 billion people live with disabilities globally, and nearly everyone will use adaptive technology at some point in their lives
• $18 trillion+ in disposable income is controlled by people with disabilities and their supporters, who have a much higher customer lifetime value and brand loyalty than average
• For every $1 spent on assistive tech, there is a 9x ROI as people engage in activities, go to and excel at work, raise families, and more. The assistive tech industry alone is projected to be $112B by 2034.

Pitch Applications Open!

On International Persons with Disabilities Day (Dec. 3rd), we officially opened pitch applications for Adaptation Ventures to huge buzz from the community. As former founders, we know how challenging this journey can be. One of our fundamental values is access and transparency – you don't need to know someone in order to get our attention. We look at all serious applications and are not afraid to provide feedback.

We back founders who are determined to build venture-scalable solutions for this market. Oftentimes, this includes founders who bring with them profound personal insight into the market. They don't just empathize with their users – they are the users. Among the exceptional founders we are looking for, we are excited to talk with:

• Founders with disabilities who understand user needs from personal experience
• Founders with close personal affinity to disability through family or community, and have demonstrated a broad applicability of this understanding
• Researchers and domain experts who have spent years studying this space

We are especially keen to meet venture scalable companies at the intersection of necessity and universal appeal. Startups that can leverage the "curb-cut effect" are poised to define the next decade given the massive and unmet market needs.

Check out adaptation.vc/apply to learn more about the process and apply.

Continued Stamp of Approval from YCombinator

YCombinator, the leading accelerator behind companies like Airbnb, Stripe, DoorDash, Instacart, Reddit, Dropbox, Scale AI, and more just announced that Kaigo Health (AI for caregiving) and AirCaps (AI for live captions and translation) are part of their Fall 2025 batch.

This continues the trend of disability and accessible technology getting a stamp of approval from the world-class accelerator. Past companies include:

• Sunu (assistive navigation for blind/low-vision)
• Trexo Robotics (pediatric mobility)
• Shimmer (adult ADHD)
• Joon Health (pediatric behavior disorders)
• Actipulse Neuroscience (brain stimulation)

Collectively, these companies have gone on to raise an estimated $20-30M to scale their impact after graduating.

Industry News & Policy

Regulatory changes, corporate initiatives, and emerging market trends continue to accelerate progress in digital accessibility and disability inclusion across public and private sectors, setting new benchmarks for innovation and compliance.

• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Launches $2M Challenge for AI and Caregiving. The initiative is coordinated through the Administration for Community Living (ACL) and recognizes the millions of caregivers who support aging relatives and loved ones with disabilities. Stay tuned here.
• Prosthetics maker Ottobock IPOs at $4.9B. The world's largest manufacturer of artificial limbs went public on October 9th. Currently at a $5.4B market cap, this shows a strong investor appetite for disability tech and opens pathways for M&A.
• Google rolls out 7 ways they are making Android more accessible. As part of its December feature drop, Google upgraded its Guided Frame accessibility tool with Gemini AI models, enabling it to provide highly descriptive, real-time audio cues for blind users (e.g., "One girl with a yellow T-shirt sits on the sofa"). The update also expanded "Fast Pair" support to hearing aids and introduced "AutoClick" for users with motor disabilities who use external mice.
• V&A Museum Opens "Design and Disability" Exhibition. In November, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London launched a landmark exhibition that The Guardian and design critics have praised for shifting the narrative from "access" to "innovation." The show celebrates how creators with disabilities have driven major design advancements, featuring everything from adaptive fashion to new architectural standards.
• Apple drops a musical tribute to students with disabilities [YouTube]. For International Persons with Disabilities Day, Apple released an engaging and entertaining video showcasing students with disabilities. At 21 million views and counting, there is considerable buzz and increasing awareness.

Adaptation in the Wild

While we are largely heads-down, working hard in the background, we want to highlight a few events that were of particular importance to our ability to share the mission and engage with the community.

Neurodiversity Talks @ Multiple, Arizona State University, and Vanderbilt Frist Center for Autism Innovation

We had the privilege of meeting entrepreneurs building innovations within neurodivergence and guiding them on their journeys.

• At Multiple, the leading accelerator for autism-tech founders, Rich shared insights into company building, the importance of collaborating with users when rapidly iterating, and how to stand out as a founder in disability and accessible tech.
• Relatedly, Rich joined the ASU-SCIL's Arizona AI Challenge as a speaker alongside Amanda Lukoff of Eleplan to guide participants on capital raising and building enduring companies. Their global challenge launches soon.
• Brittany and Rich shared the stage as keynote speakers at Vanderbilt University Frist Center for Autism and Innovation. The talk centered on our proprietary research learning from neurodivergent entrepreneurs who have successfully exited their companies – and how current founders can learn from best practices.

Spinal Cord Injury Innovation @ Praxis Institute

Rich joined a distinguished panel that evaluated and gave advice to entrepreneurs building products and services for those with spinal cord injuries and related conditions. The breadth and depth of startups was incredible and highlighted Praxis Institute's commitment to developing alongside people with disabilities.

Financial Community @ HSBC and Invest Ahead

It's not surprising that there is a clear correlation between disability inclusion and shareholder returns. With 1 in 4 adults having disabilities and commanding $18T in disposable income, these massive and engaged populations have long been overlooked. As investors, one of our responsibilities (and privileges) is getting to share the business case of disability inclusion with the broader investment community to bring awareness to the early stage companies that are going to define the next decades. With Invest Ahead members representing $8T in AUM and disability leaders such as Ted Kennedy Jr. as keynotes, we got to share this vision and prompt forward thinking asset managers, pension funds, foundations, and other capital allocators to think about this market in a whole new way. A big thank you to our friends at Disability:IN for connecting the innovation ecosystem together.

To Ponder: Bringing Forth Your Calling

"Art! art alone, deterred me. Ah! how could I possibly quit the world before bringing forth all that I felt it was my vocation to produce?" – Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven lost his hearing at age 28, yet created his greatest masterpiece – the Ninth Symphony – entirely in silence. Rather than abandon his life's work, he reimagined it, developing innovative composition techniques and an internal auditory imagination so refined he could compose entire symphonies in his mind. Beethoven didn't "overcome" his deafness; he transformed it into creative advantage, channeling his constraint into art of unparalleled depth.

This principle defines the founders we back at Adaptation Ventures. Our entrepreneurs don't succeed by working around their disabilities or affinities – they succeed by leveraging the unique insights and problem-solving approaches their lived experience provides. Like Beethoven composing in silence, they often pioneer solutions other teams never conceive. They see friction points others overlook, and understand user needs with granular specificity. When we invest in founders building accessibility solutions, we're funding unconventional thinkers whose constraints drive innovation and outsized returns. Beethoven's Ninth reminds us: the most profound breakthroughs emerge not despite our constraints, but because of them.

Our Upcoming Events

If you will be at any of these events, or would like to suggest an event we should attend or speak at, drop us a line.

• SXSW | March 13 | Brittany will be moderating the Healthcare, AssistiveTech and BioTech SXSW Pitch category

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Thank you for being part of the Adaptation Ventures journey.

Best, The Adaptation Ventures Team

This journal is for informational purposes only, is not a prospectus, may not be relied on as legal, tax, securities or investment advice and does not constitute an offer to buy or sell interests in Adaptation Ventures Fund I (the "Fund").