Tech startup Minikai secures $2.5m in seed funding amid strong take-up by NDIS service providers

Melbourne startup Minikai, a company building AI agents for the disability and aged care sectors, has secured $2.5 million in funding after gaining traction among some of the country’s largest care providers over the past year.

The seed round, which was led by Tidal Ventures and supported by Antler, is aimed at accelerating Minikai’s plans to remove the administrative barriers and inefficiencies that cost care providers and the government billions of tax dollars every year.

Founded in 2024 by Keoki Alexander-Chang and Ky Shera-Jones, Minikai is already backed by venture studio Mangosteen which is led by Luke Janssen, founder of Australian tech company Tigerspike.

Shera-Jones previously worked on government infrastructure at Concentrix-Tigerspike while Alexander-Chang was former head of Deloitte's Forensic AI lab, and both have a personal story behind their decision to establish the startup to tackle the challenging administrative issues confronting the burgeoning sector.

“Our goal at Minikai is to make AI useful so that every Australian can access better care and thrive,” says Alexander-Chang, the CEO of Minikai.

“If we can help providers reduce the time they spend on admin, we are helping taxpayers, the government, providers, carers, and the people in need of care.”

Alexander-Chang left a promising career at Forensic AI lab to launch Minikai, motivated by his mother’s struggles navigating health and human services. The challenges his mother faced navigating social services inspired Chang to tackle what he saw as the most significant problem in the field – administration.

“Waiting on hold, filling in forms, processing applications, getting approval; it’s the busy work nobody wants to do,” he says. “We’re going to get AI to do this work instead.”

Since launching, Minikai has grown to service care providers who collectively support more than 150,000 vulnerable Australians annually.

Minikai notes that Australian care providers spend between 30 and 50 per cent of their working hours on admin and compliance rather than providing direct care, creating a growing gap between care needs and delivery capacity.

SDA Services, which helps NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) participants access Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) funding within their NDIS plans, is among the companies that has seen dramatic improvements in efficiency since adopting the Minikai platform.

“Having been engaged over 1,700 times across Australia by participants, we have a very niche and specific understanding of the framework which governs the NDIS scheme and how participants may be funded for SDA and SIL (supported independent living),” says Amanda Dodds, CEO of SDA Services.

“Since engaging with Minikai, we have seen a dramatic reduction in time that we spend putting together these extremely intricate SDA and SIL applications to ensure eligible NDIS participants can choose where they want to live, who they want to live with and how they want to live.”

Dodds says that for the participant, it means they are getting “quicker outcomes from NDIA (National Disability Insurance Agency)”.

“The technology has also us to stay true to our philosophy of getting the participants' preferences and voices heard in the applications, backed up by clinical evidence to address the NDIA SDA legislation, act and rules,” she says.

Minikai co-founder Shera-Jones, who is CTO at the startup, was inspired to develop the platform by his nephew Chase, an NDIS participant.

“When I received the title of ‘uncle’ at 15 years old, I didn’t comprehend the impact it would have on my life,” says Shera-Jones.

“My nephew Chase is fortunate to receive NDIS funding, but it’s clear the system we have can be better.”

Shera-Jones grew up as a dairy farmer but spent his recent career modernising complex backend infrastructure for the Australian government and leading high-performance teams at Concentrix-Tigerspike.

Georgie Turner, partner at Tidal Ventures, sees Minikai’s AI-powered platform as a “step-change in how aged care and NDIS providers deliver and document essential services” while slashing the administrative burden and improving compliance and care quality.

“The team’s deep technical expertise in AI and intimate understanding of the regulatory landscape position them well to transform workflows across the care sector,” says Turner.

“We are excited to back Minikai as they build what we believe will become the bedrock of improved care globally.”