American Marconi Wireless News - Enable Ventures Announces $50.31M Fund Close of First Market Rate Venture Fund Focused on High Growth Opportunities to Close the Disability Wealth Gap

WASHINGTON, D.C. / ACCESS Newswire / September 29, 2026 / Enable Ventures, the first market rate venture fund dedicated to closing the disability wealth gap by investing in inclusive and universally designed cutting edge, AI-driven tech innovations, announced today its final close at $50 million of total commitments. Enable Ventures targets high-growth, early-stage Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning startups, operating on the thesis that disability-inclusive design pushes AI innovation into entirely new frontiers. Rather than treating AI as an afterthought, the fund's portfolio companies leverage AI as a foundational asset to solve sweeping accessibility, data, and labor problems. The new fund attracted commitments from several prominent institutional investors.

Enable Ventures was launched in June 2022 by Regina "Gina" Kline, Founder and Managing Partner of the fund's manager, Enable Ventures Management, LLC, alongside Jim Sorenson, and since then has made commitments to 11 companies across the worktech, digital health, and assistive tech sectors. As part of its core investment thesis, Enable Ventures targets investments that achieve a double bottom line that drives profit and purpose in the historically underserved global disability community.

Fund Includes Commitments by Prominent Institutional Investors

The fund is backed by a number of prominent institutional investors and other Limited Partners including UnitedHealth Group, Liberty Mutual Investments, The Ford Foundation, Ally Bank, SHRM, Ascension, Britebound, Weingart Foundation, Social Finance, The Doctors Company, Next50, and Guy's & St Thomas' Foundation, and others.

"We are so proud to close our first fund with the support of so many reputable and mission-aligned investors who have recognized the powerful investment potential of inclusive tech," said Kline. "The secret is out and we couldn't be happier about it; well-designed and inclusive tech is not a niche, nice-to-have investment category, but is at the forefront of so much of the tech innovation taking place today, with AI at its core. And big tech is taking notice. We are building a home at Enable Ventures for founders from all points who are working across worktech, digital health and assistive tech, and who are standouts in their fields and are already influencing the big tech sector. What's more, these innovations are more effective because they are designed from the outset with the disability community at the center."

"We've backed Gina Kline since day one because she understood something the market is only now catching up to: that products built with the disability community at the center can create competitive market rate returns alongside a better more fulfilling life for those with a disability," said Jim Sorenson, Founder and Executive Chairman of the Sorenson Impact Group. "This $50 million of commitments, anchored by incredible investors, validates that thesis at scale. Enable Ventures is a cornerstone of the Sorenson Impact platform, and this is just the beginning."

Portfolio Updates

The fund allocates capital across the following categories:

• Up-skilling, Re-skilling, and Future-proofing Work: Startups bridging skills gaps by training underrepresented workers for the modern economy.
• Work-Related Technologies: Radical, inclusive digital tools that help people with disabilities find, secure, and maintain high-quality employment.
• Next-Generation Assistive Tech: High-growth products leveraging advanced software, AI, and hardware to drive independence and mainstream market viability.
• Founders with Disabilities: Investing early-stage capital directly into flexible, adaptive entrepreneurs who bring their lived experience with disability into their product design.

Enable Ventures' portfolio posits that training AI on authentic data reflective of the disability experience and community creates highly valuable, superior technology. To date the Fund has made the following investments:

• Be My Eyes: a leading AI-driven visual interpreter company that leverages live video streaming and generative AI to audio describe the world to the blind and low vision community.
• Kalogon: a health technology company that designs smart seating solutions and cushion systems; the company uses patent-pending sensor technology and adaptive pressure management to prevent pressure injuries, improve blood flow, and reduce fatigue for people who sit for long periods.
• Cionic: a pioneer of the future of walking that builds an advanced neural sleeve system combining wearable neurotechnology, adaptive AI, and connected care.
• Goodpath: a virtual healthcare company that provides whole-person, integrative care for chronic conditions. It combines traditional medicine with lifestyle changes to treat conditions like obesity, back and joint pain, sleep issues, and digestive health.
• Ava: an AI-powered live captioning and speech-to-text service designed to help deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals communicate in meetings, classrooms, and daily life.
• Daivergent: a technology startup and Public Benefit Corporation that serves as a job-preparation, care delivery, and skills training platform for individuals with autism, neurodivergence, and other disabilities.
• DeepWalk: a software company that provides an AI-driven platform that uses mobile phone LiDAR scanners to inspect sidewalks and curb ramps, helping municipalities and Departments of Public Works automate accessibility compliance and infrastructure.
• Inclusively: a workforce inclusion and intelligence company that connects job seekers who have disabilities, mental health conditions, or chronic illnesses with inclusive employers, while providing enterprise tools to manage workplace accommodations and benefit utilization.
• Mindset Care: a platform that helps people with mental health conditions, physical disabilities, or chronic illnesses navigate the complex application process for Social Security Disability benefits (SSI and SSDI).
• Pear Suite: a digital health platform and care navigation software designed to support community health workers (CHWs) and community-based organizations.
• Wheel the World: a specialized AI-driven online travel platform dedicated to end-to-end accessible travel and tourism, also serving destinations and hospitality by increasing visitor volume and being the trusted global intelligence layer for accessibility information.

About Enable Ventures
Enable Ventures is the first market rate venture fund dedicated to closing the disability wealth gap by investing in cutting edge, AI-driven tech innovations. The company sources, attracts, and invests in world class inclusive tech with a focus on AI innovation, and partners with its portfolio companies to scale impact as they scale revenue. Enable Ventures is committed to demonstrating through its category-defining investment strategy, that disability tech has the potential to create measurable impact and financial alpha while changing the way technology is made from the outset. Founded and led by Regina "Gina" Kline, the investor, entrepreneur, and civil rights lawyer, Enable Ventures is part of the Sorenson Impact Platform of Funds and is backed by world-renowned entrepreneur, business leader, and societal innovator Jim Sorenson and Sorenson Impact's vast, world-class experience in impact and market-rate investment. For more information, please visit www.enableventures.vc.

Media Contact:
Cindy Stoller
Confluence Partners
917-331-0418
[email protected]

LP and Portfolio Company Quotes:

"We are proud to be a part of Enable Ventures' debut fund. As a portfolio company, we didn't just receive their capital investment, we've become a part of their wide-spanning network, benefitted from their rich sector expertise, and we subscribe to their drive to make business a force for impact. The Enable Ventures team brings a level of hands-on support that is unmatched, and a profound belief in why our work matters," said Mike Buckley, CEO of Be My Eyes. "They are not just betting on a trend, they understand deeply "the who" in the backbone of our economy. They're backing us with the conviction that inclusive tools are a market-rate growth opportunity and a mission-driven one and are working hard to put those tools in peoples' hands as a result."

"Our partnership with Enable Ventures reflects a shared commitment to expanding opportunity for people with disabilities and accelerating innovative solutions that strengthen communities. What has always impressed us about Enable Ventures is their ability to bring together purpose and performance, supporting entrepreneurs and technologies that create meaningful social impact while helping more people participate fully in the workforce and economy. We are proud to see the growth of this fund and the momentum it is building around a more inclusive future." - Catherine Anderson, Senior Vice President, Health Optimization Strategy, UnitedHealth Group.

"We are proud to support Enable Ventures' work to further tech innovation and close the disability wealth gap," said Christine Looney, deputy director of Mission Investments for The Ford Foundation. "Enable Ventures is helping prove inclusive, AI-driven solutions that center the disability community at the onset are both a powerful driver of social impact, and a smart investment."

"Through COIN, the California Organized Investment Network, The Doctors Company is able to make financially sound investments that also support meaningful environmental, social, and diversity benefits in California and other states," said TC Wilson, Chief Investment Officer of The Doctors Company. "Our investment in Enable Ventures reflects that commitment. The fund's focus on inclusive, AI-driven innovation aligns with COIN's mission to help insurers invest in opportunities that can strengthen underserved communities, improve patient outcomes, and encourage inclusivity when prudent, while maintaining disciplined investment standards."

"SHRM invested in Enable Ventures because we believe the same principle that drives inclusive workplaces also drives inclusive innovation - when you design for the full range of human experience, you build something better for everyone," said Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM president and CEO. "This fund close reflects what SHRM has long known: inclusion isn't a compliance obligation, it's a competitive advantage, and we're proud to help scale the technology that makes that case."

SOURCE: Enable Ventures

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

O.Karlsson--AMWN