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Roo Harris reports a quarter of Scale Investors pitches from neurodivergent founders
In short
At Think Autism Melbourne in 2026, the venture investor said the share of pitches to the firm from founders identifying as neurodivergent had doubled in a year, evidence of what Harris called a hidden autistic economy.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
Before coming on stage at Think Autism Melbourne on 30 May 2026, Roo Harris checked the firm’s numbers. Harris is a general partner at Scale Investors, a venture capital firm whose mandate, Harris said, is to invest in women and gender diverse founders. The firm collects data from pitch submissions, where founders choose to self disclose the intersectional identities they hold. In the previous year, Harris said, 12 and a half per cent of more than a thousand pitch submissions came from founders who identified as neurodivergent. In 2026, with the year only half done, the figure was 25 per cent.
Harris read the rise as evidence of a “hidden autistic economy”. In many respects, Harris said, “policy is not there, the government has not caught up”, but autistic founders were already building businesses regardless. Harris allowed that this might have been said the year before as well, and said the conviction was stronger now.
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Sources the story draws on
- Lack of progress for women startup founders masked by headline improvement, 2025 report shows (opens in a new tab), Women's Agenda (Brianna Boecker)
- Ask an Angel: Roo Harris, Scale Investors (opens in a new tab), LaunchVic (Holly Clark)
- Autism in Australia, 2022 (opens in a new tab), Australian Bureau of Statistics
- National Autism Strategy 2025 to 2031, First Action Plan 2025 to 2026 (opens in a new tab), Department of Social Services
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