Problem
Domestic violence still happens far too often in the UK. Here are some sobering stats:
1 in 3 women between 16 and 75 has or will face Gender-Based violence in their lifetime (UN Women/global)
More than 100 women were killed every year by men in the UK (this ranges from 110 to 160 depending on the year if we look at the past 10 years).
Cases like Sarah Everard or Sabina Nessa last year highlight the need for more safety in the streets and a better reporting/protection system (Sarah Everard was killed by a Police officer).
1.6 million women and 757,000 men reported experiencing domestic abuse between March 2019-2020 (Crime Survey for England and Wales, 2020). The number of abuse cases is 18% higher in 2020 than in 2018, and studies from the Home Office suggest that COVID-19 had a direct impact on increasing case numbers and abuse severity.
4 weeks into the first lockdown, calls to domestic abuse helplines had increased by 120%
Each year, £15.73B in judicial, social, refuge and legal costs and other associated economic loss goes towards domestic abuse cases in England alone. Furthermore, emotional and physical abuse costed victims an estimated £34,015/person (Home Office, 2019)
In an ideal world, everyone would learn to develop solid emotional control and conflict management skills, but until we reach that point as a society there needs to be high quality products and services that serve those who are trying to escape domestic abuse situations. Specifically related to the UK where people have a few imperfect options:
Report the abuser to the police. However, police forces lack training and sensitivity to deal with cases of gender-based violence. In addition, there is ample evidence showing many victims having negative experiences reporting domestic violence to them.
Go to a refuge/seek support from a local council. However, institutions lack resources to efficiently support people facing abuse (hence broken trust).
Talk to an outreach worker. However, victims can be in denial/feel ashamed, which prevents them from talking to other people including social workers/helplines. To reach out to a support service you also need to know about one/have their contact information but in situations of control, looking for this information or calling these services can be really dangerous/frightening.
Utilise a service like “Ask for Angela.” Ask for Angela has a strong network with the support of the Mayor of London but has many limitations, including:
Lack of transparency about the process. Potential victims don't know what kind of training has been provided and what will happen once they “Ask for Angela”, and it’s not easily searchable online.
More aimed at removing the victim from harassment rather than removing the abuser from the given venue.
Despite a strong network, a lot of people have never heard of it.
A startup we just invested in, ila Generation, is revolutionising this space by turning local stores into safe spaces and bystanders into allies, thus offering a more compelling option to those fleeing domestic abuse. Basically, the way this works is that ila Generation creates a training app that store employees use to learn how to be an Ally in these sorts of situations, such as de-escalation and communication techniques. These stores pay for ila Generation’s training app, and once the employees pass then the store is “Ally Certified.” Now, when a potential domestic violence fleer needs somewhere to go to, they can look for stores that have this certification, and will receive the proper amount of help that they need. This presents a win-win for the stores and the fleer; the fleer gets the proper amount of support, while the stores can use this as a marketing perk that can draw more customers into their doors. The benefit of ALLY here is that they make support more accessible by providing it in places where victims would go anyways. Currently, this app is downloadable on the App Store/Google Play with a section that will act as a directory for all ALLY stores (launching in July along the B2B side of the app). The official directory will be added to their website in April/early May.
This fits with our theme of “high pain point, not straightforward” to a tee. Those who have never experienced domestic violence first hand nor studied the industry (including myself) won’t fully understand the challenges victims face, and thus won’t be in the position to create a solution that optimally does that. We believe that ila Generation will do just that, curated by a team (more on this later) who understands the problems domestic violence fleers face in depth.
Potential Market Opportunity
The demand has already been proven for ila Generation. In March 2022 alone, they onboarded 120 staff members and 6 companies from a range of sectors (hospitality, fitness & wellbeing, retail) on a paid trial, generating around £2600 (with some bigger chains interested to join from the app launch). In terms of market size, globally HR Tech is worth £18.36B, D&I Tech is worth £240M, and Physical Retail is worth £50M. If ILA Generation even gets to just 3% global market penetration, the payouts could be immense.
The greater market opportunity is within the greater realm of development of the “smart city structure.” Could it be that ILA Generation could partner with smart-city builders to ensure all of their stores are Ally-certified? How about restaurants, coworking spaces, gyms, and other spots of urban retail? The possibilities could be endless.
Potential Challenges
Some of the potential question marks ILA Generation could face as it scales include:
At what volume does this scale to? How much across London vs the UK vs the rest of Europe vs global? How will different regional stores respond to something like this? What challenges are there to expanding globally?
What’s the chance a competitor comes in, develops a better training app/better “Ally” certification standards, and usurps ILA Generation’s moat?
How long will stores continue to pay for this in the long term? What will be the attrition rate in 2 years, 5 years and 10 years?
How does this change the behaviour of domestic violence fleers? Will the majority of them go to an Ally-certified store in these situations? What if the abusers find out about Ally? Are there protective mechanisms against that?
These are all things we are confident, however, that ila Generation can address both in the short and long term.
Founder + Team Potential
Julie Sané-Pezet and Net Supatravanij are the right duo to be tackling this problem and taking ila Generation to the next level. Julie Sané-Pezet previously spent time in India, Kenya and Europe working on impact projects with a wide range of organisations including local non-profits and the LSE, specialising in gender-based violence research. This unique on the ground experience has enabled her to gain the insights needed to both diagnose and tackle the problem of gender-based violence in cities using human-centred design (IDEO certified).
Net Supatravanij, meanwhile, is also a B Lab UK Standards Regional Advisor for B Corp UK and a former Strategic Planner at Ogilvy & Mather, giving her a very in-depth insight into the dynamics behind corporate social responsibility and how ila Generation can contribute.
Both co-founders have shown to be open-minded, inquisitive, creative and determined, which will allow them to have the right attitude to go far. We’re excited to be working with them to take their startup to the next level.