South African Augmental Technologies Set to Launch its Tracto App for Neurodivergent Kids in the US
South Africa-founded Healthtech start-up, Augmental Technologies, has announced it is set to launch in the United States. Before creating Tracto, “a digital companion app,” to assist parents of neurodivergent children, Herman Lintvelt and Michael van der Linde spent three years researching their needs.
The founders like to think of Tracto app as a digital companion made by professionals in the field of child mental health who comprehend how families function best. It provides pertinent assistance that is tailored to the requirements of each household. Parents have the option to choose whether or not to provide their healthcare providers access to the app’s data.
According to Van der Linde, the startup began consulting with parents, educators, healthcare professionals, and other experts in 2018 to determine how it could empower parents and care teams to support children diagnosed with ADHD and/or autism.
“In 2018, we started talking with parents, teachers, healthcare providers and other experts to figure out how we could empower parents and care teams to help children diagnosed with ADHD and/or autism.
“We wanted to see their families thrive. We were overwhelmed with the stories we heard, and the need expressed by parents to get better support; to be more empowered to have a positive impact on their children’s health journeys,” says Van der Linde.
Herman Lintvelt, CEO and co-founder of Augmental Technologies claims that the startup understands what parents go through too well. To support parents in their path toward treating their child’s attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it has designed Tracto as a digital companion app.
Funding, Product Development and Expansion for Augmental Technologies
Augmental Technologies launched in 2018 and bootstrapped for 3 years as both founders handled the startup as a side-hustle. The founders came up with the idea of developing South Africa’s family-first integrated mental healthcare in 2019. “We spent our evenings coding and launching pilots in South Africa and North-America with about 200 parents,” said Van der Linde.
During this time, a number of prototypes were constructed and put to the test in order to define a product that would actually benefit parents and enhance the health of their children. In 2021, Augmental Technologies Secured $130k from angel investors.
Understanding this completely changed everything for Tracto, the first product released by Augmental Technologies. The start-up also gave birth to several online courses and an early-access virtual parent coaching platform this year, all of which were distributed under the Tracto name.
In May this year, the startup secured an undisclosed amount from New York-based StartUp Health in May 2022. The investment placed them in Startup Health’s league of extraordinary Healthtech founders known as Health Transformers.
As Augmental Technologies now looks to launch Tracto in the United States, it can rightly boast of the successes it has achieved thus far. Logan Plaster, head of media for StartUp Health noted that the firm is proud to have funded a startup that is so obsessed about listening to providers and patients and solving real-world challenges.
With the help of StartUp Health, Lintvelt explains, “we will be able to further enhance our offering to parents and health insurers and advance our commercialization plan in the US.”