Health tech start-up aims to help sort out issues with NDIS

Health technology start-up Kismet has launched with $4 million raised in a pre-seed round and says it will focus on tools to support plan and fund management, aiming to connect patients with legitimate providers and address the biggest challenges in the disability and healthcare sectors.

The funding has come from AirTree, Daniel Petre, Black Nova and Flying Fix, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Kismet statement claimed about $6 billion of allocated NDIS funds had been lost to what it called “criminal activities” up to 2022: overcharging of participants, billing additional commissions and charging for bogus services.

Additionally, about $7.5 billion of NDIS funds were left unused by participants who were unaware of how funds could be allocated.

The Kismet tools include:

Kismet Free Online Marketplace: connecting Australians with over 27,000 providers who are subject to a vetting process ensuring only legitimate operators, which provides fraud protection and reduces barriers to accessing care;

Kismet Wallet

Provides a complete view of a participant’s plan to help securely track funds and improve collaboration with family members, caregivers and patients. The wallet will help reduce out-of-pocket top-ups for primary carers and improve utilisation of plan funds; and

Kismet Digital Check-In System

Legitimises customer attendance and reduces the potential of fraud.

Co-founder and chief executive Mark Woodland said: “Improving access to healthcare is one of the most important challenges of our generation. Industry and government need to work hand-in-hand to simplify access and stamp out bad actors to ensure everyone has access to one of our most basic needs.

“We saw the same problems of fraud, inefficiencies and friction in childcare a decade ago. Through Xplor, we worked with the government to stamp out $3B in fraud, and are now looking to do the same for healthcare. We see huge potential to address challenges across healthcare, and while we have our eyes set on the NDIS first, we will be able to scale our tech globally to help millions worldwide access the care they need.”

Elicia McDonald, partner at Airtree Ventures, added: “Mark is a visionary leader who revolutionised the way families, educators and children engage with education when he founded Xplor – by bringing community and brand to an industry in which neither existed before.

“We understand how difficult it is to build something like this and we love seeing repeat-founders build on past successes from lessons learned. For Mark, the successes and lessons are plenty and we are excited to go on this journey with him and his team building the future of health. I think it is natural that for his first venture since Xplor, Mark and his founding team return to the theme of connecting communities of people by reducing administrative burdens allowing them to focus on what matters most – their families’ health. As we face an increasingly aging population, this change is well overdue.”

Investor Daniel Petre said

The statement said the people behind Kismet were the same as those behind Xplor, the edutech company that is claimed to have transformed the childcare system which suffered from similar problems to the healthcare system, including fraud, inefficiencies and complicated systems.

Xplor is now claimed to be the leading provider of childcare software and helped save the government billions in fraud ($3.1 billion in 2020 through the use of Xplor software combined with government investigations).