MELBOURNE: Enable Ventures announced the final close of its debut fund at $50.31 million, backing early-stage AI and machine learning startups across worktech, digital health, and assistive tech. The firm invests in inclusive and universally designed technology, targeting what it calls the disability wealth gap.

Enable Ventures launched in June 2022, founded by Regina “Gina” Kline, managing partner of Enable Ventures Management, alongside Jim Sorenson. It has committed to 11 companies to date.

Limited partners include UnitedHealth Group, Liberty Mutual Investments, The Ford Foundation, Ally Bank, SHRM, Ascension, Social Finance, and Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation, among others.

The fund allocates capital across four categories: up-skilling and re-skilling work, inclusive work technologies, next-generation assistive tech, and founders with disabilities. Its thesis holds that disability-inclusive design pushes AI innovation forward rather than treating accessibility as an afterthought.

Kline said 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.”

Enable Ventures pitches a double bottom line — profit and purpose — arguing that products built with the disability community at the center can deliver market-rate returns. Sorenson said the raise “validates that thesis at scale,” positioning the firm as a cornerstone of the Sorenson Impact platform.