Startup Spotlight: Adoptee Identity - Redefining How Individuals + Families Navigate the Lifelong Journey of Adoption
Adoptee Identity is Rhode Island–based startup founded by adoptees, for adoptees, redefining how individuals and families navigate the lifelong journey of adoption, identity, and belonging. With a mission centered on empowerment, education, and emotional wellness, the company is building tools that help adoptees and their “village” foster healthier, more honest conversations about identity and lived experience.
The Mission
Adoptee Identity exists to bridge a gap that many adoptees know all too well: the lack of accessible, adoptee-centered resources that thoughtfully address identity formation, mental health, and family dynamics. The company’s founders — themselves adoptees — bring lived experience, professional expertise, and community insight to the problem. Their work focuses on offering adoptees practical support tools grounded in empathy, trauma awareness, and empowerment.
What They’re Building
Adoptee Identity provides a suite of tools designed to support real-world conversations and reflection, including:
Framework developed from lived experience and research
Four themes
1] Origin
2] Adoption
3] Big Feeling Days
4] Embracing the “&”
Guided meditations
Reflective journaling tools
Audio and visual storytelling via podcasts and art
Personal growth analytics
Together, these resources offer adoptees a space where their experiences are validated and understood — and where their support systems can learn how to show up with empathy.
Why It Matters
Adoption, while rooted in care, can carry complex emotional landscapes for adoptees. Questions of identity, belonging, cultural connection, and loss can resurface across a lifetime. Yet many adoptees report a lack of dedicated resources built specifically for them. Adoptee Identity is tackling this challenge head-on, positioning Rhode Island as a home for innovative, mission-driven work in mental health, community-building, and identity support–values shared by NEMIC’s commitment to enabling founders who bring lived experience to a healthcare and well-being challenge that affects millions.
Rhode Island Roots
With strong ties to the local adoptee community, Adoptee Identity benefits from Rhode Island’s collaborative innovation ecosystem. The state’s size and interconnected networks make it an ideal proving ground for early-stage startups focused on social impact, well-being, and inclusive care. Founder Dr. Hansen-DiBello is from Rhode Island, and Co-Founder Ellie Robinson is a University of Rhode Island graduate; and both Robinson and Clinical Advisor Kehinde Vaz, LICSW have ties with Bradley Hospital. Adoptee Identity was accepted as a RIHub Startup Venture in 2024, where they worked to develop content, assess the R&D and market landscape, and more. The startup also secured a $250k investment contingent on a match from Rogue Venture Partners, a local venture capital firm that has partnered with the State to manage the state's new government-run venture capital fund, the Rhode Island Venture Capital Fund. While the firm is originally from Oregon, it now has a significant presence in Rhode Island, with its "Rogue Rhode Island" fund specifically focused on investing in the state's local startups.
Why to Watch
Adoptee Identity is more than a resource hub — it’s a movement toward shifting how adoption is discussed, supported, and understood. By centering the voices of adoptees, the company is paving a path that blends personal storytelling, mental wellness, and design-driven tools.
For Rhode Island’s innovation landscape, Adoptee Identity represents the kind of compassionate, community-anchored entrepreneurship that NEMIC is proud to spotlight.
NEMIC + Adoptee Identity
In August 2025, Adoptee Identity was accepted into NEMIC’s MedTech Leadership Program, which is free for Rhode Island-based residents, students, employees, and companies. MTLP offers a holistic view of regulated medical technology development, best commercialization practices, and business leadership strategies for regulated medical technologies.
With guidance and business advisory from NEMIC, Adoptee Identity continues to develop its B2B and B2C target markets, as well as build out the business model and app development. The platform offers a compelling opportunity for why employers, universities, & providers will be incentivized to engage, by providing a benefit that strengthens mental well-being, belonging, and organizational performance.
The company has a clear pathway to revenue, and is currently seeking a total of $750k to complete the development of the MVP, convene a research working group with representatives from research institutions, public and private health sectors, and pilot the across several sites over the next 18 months. For more information and to explore the company, CONTACT ADOPTEE IDENTITY today; and be sure to follow the NEMIC BLOG for more innovative companies in the NEMIC pipeline!
