Annie Flamsteed’s wellness start-up iNSPIRETEK flags $10m fund raising
A 26-year-old former gymnast has created a Brisbane-based mental health start-up that could hit the $50m valuation mark this year after impressing some influential investors.
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A former competitive gymnast has swung into 2022 with ambitious plans to raise $10m for her Brisbane-based mental health management start-up iNSPIRETEK.
Annie Flamsteed, 26, last month raised $2.5m in seed funding, valuing the wellness platform targeting youth athletes at $8.5m.
Starting next month she hopes to capitalise on strong interest from US-based investors to raise at least $10m in Series A funding, which would boost the company’s valuation to $50m.
Ms Flamsteed started the company in 2019 to provide young athletes with mental health support and tools.
As a 16 year old competitive gymnast in Toowoomba she says she got burnt out and abandoned the sport before reaching her full potential.
“As someone who struggled with mental health during my time as an athlete, I know how important the correlation is between a healthy body and a healthy mind in high-pressure sporting environments,” she said.
“Current sporting models that focus on elite athletes are missing a critical time in an individual’s development. Our goal is to drive positive behavioural change for athletes. Performance is just a by-product of that.”
The company said its technology, available on both mobile and web-based platforms, is already used by more than 10,000 school-aged athletes and more than 40 organisations, including Gymnastics QLD, Palm Beach-Currumbin State High School and Gold Coast Knights soccer club.
Elite tennis coach Darren Cahill, who has coached grand slam winners Lleyton Hewitt, Andre Agassi and Simona Halep, is one of the company’s high profile investors.
“iNSPIRETEK’s intervention technology addresses mental wellness in sport at a grassroots level, recognising that individual resilience cannot occur when a person is thrust into a rigorous training regime and public scrutiny without the proper tools and support,” he said.
“The importance of this technology has been heightened in recent times, as more professional athletes have put a spotlight on systemic mental health issues affecting all athletes.”
Other backers of the company include US-based investment firm SmartSports, investors David and Emma Mactaggart and Vu Tran from Brisbane-based software firm GO1.
SmartSports chairman George Mackin called Ms Flamsteed one of the more impressive young company founders his company had come across.
“The company is focused on solving an increasingly important issue in youth sports, and in the world in general,” he said.
iNSPIRETEK now employs 20 people in Brisbane and Sydney and is looking to hire staff for expansion in the Asia Pacific region and the US
“The sheer speed and level of adoption tells us that this product is not only highly relevant but critical to the future of the sporting industry,” Ms Flamsteed said.
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Originally published as Annie Flamsteed’s wellness start-up iNSPIRETEK flags $10m fund raising
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