International healthcare group Bupa has launched a new funding opportunity catered to start-ups across Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong that are developing innovative solutions that create healthier and more sustainable societies in addition to breaking down barriers to accessing quality healthcare.
The 2024 eco-Disruptive program provides select start-ups with the equivalent of £25,000 in initial funding as well as the opportunity to receive the equivalent of £200,000 if they win Bupa’s global eco-Disruptive competition.
Roger Sharp, Chief Sustainability & Corporate Affairs Officer at Bupa Asia Pacific, shared that since 2021 the eco-Disruptive program has been able to support 18 environmentally focused start-ups across Asia Pacific including Airseed, Cassava Bags Australia and Clearbot.
“This year we feel the time is right for a wider focus, to a program that not only brings opportunities for innovation and sustainability but also to engage start-ups that are focused on creating healthy societies through the themes of inclusive health, supporting disability and illness prevention,” Sharp said. “By focusing on these areas, we can help improve peoples access to healthcare, when they need it. By doing so we can also help prevent the need for more significant healthcare in the future, which in turn reduces the impact of the health sector on the environment.”
The eco-Disruptive program is part of Bupa’s strategy of building a stronger relationship with the start-up community across Asia Pacific, having recently launched Bupa Ventures to support the early funding rounds of select start-ups working across predictive and preventative healthcare, genomics, home care and remote monitoring.
“Working with start-ups, and embracing new ways of thinking, are an important part of Bupa’s strategy, because the health challenges facing our communities are vast, complicated and require us to innovate and move at speed,” Sharp said. “We believe we can support a start-ups inherent agility and creativity with scale, access to global insights and our market presence across five continents. We are really excited to see what our teams and start-ups are able to develop and bring to market!”
The 2024 eco-Disruptive program is open for expressions of interest from start-ups across Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong until 2 September.
