We build technology that improves real-life connection.
Purpose
AI is now extraordinarily capable. When that capability is grounded in genuine human insight, it has the power to transform how we care for one another.
People regulate, reflect and change through relationships, with each other and with the systems around them. So we build clinical judgement into the technology itself, shaping how it listens, reasons, holds uncertainty, recognises risk, and knows when to hand back to a person. The higher the risk, the less the technology decides and the more a person does.
We do not measure success by time spent with our technology. A good interaction can leave someone needing it less, and more able to be with the people in their life. What matters is what happens afterwards.
We build products and conceptual models that work on this problem, across mental health, disability and care.
The best outcome from an AI interaction may be a better human interaction afterwards.
Portfolio
Technology is already transforming healthcare and care systems. The critical question is no longer whether it belongs in care, but how we ensure it remains fiercely human-centred, clinically governed, and safe.
Every Burdock product starts with this responsibility. The settings change—from breaking down communication barriers for children to reducing the cognitive load on care teams. But our foundation never changes: a rigorous clinical and governance layer that keeps human connection at the centre. The applications are simply what that foundation makes possible.
In build: an application removing communication barriers between children and the adults supporting them.
More are in design. Ask us.
People
Burdock was founded at the intersection of human care and complex technology.
Our four founders bring together decades of experience in psychotherapy, systemic practice, healthcare leadership, clinical governance, software architecture, engineering and building organisations from the ground up.
What brought us together was a shared question: What becomes possible when deep clinical knowledge and serious engineering are brought together from the very beginning?
Burdock is our answer: technology built not simply because AI can do more, but because we believe it can help people and the professionals who support them understand more, connect better and make human care better.
Clinical
Family and systemic psychotherapist and social worker with more than twenty-five years of practice in Australia and the UK, beginning in child protection. Clinical Director of AkindaCo, where he leads clinical work, develops therapists and consults on complex cases. Has taught counselling, psychotherapy and social work at the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia.
Architecture
Software architect and applied researcher with a PhD in signal processing and a background in mechatronic engineering. Principal System Architect and Head of Software at evoSonic, leading multidisciplinary teams building technology for high-risk, high-reliability environments. Works across academia and industry on sensing, detection and intelligent software systems.
Products
Founder and managing director of AkindaCo since 2020, serving families across multiple South Australian sites. Before that, Program Director of the Master of Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University of Adelaide, and Head of Faculty for Creative Therapies at the Ikon Institute, where she developed Australia's first bachelor degree in arts psychotherapy. Earlier, in the UK, she founded an art psychotherapy practice in Manchester, was Head of Therapy at a private acute psychiatric hospital, and spent five years across NHS child, adolescent and adult mental health services. She began her career as Head of Publicity at Pan Macmillan.
Systems
Engineering Manager at APC Technology, leading the engineering function and multidisciplinary teams delivering rugged technology from Adelaide. Honours degree in mechanical engineering from Flinders University, with earlier experience in mechanical design and project engineering. Co-founded a precision manufacturing business in 2018 and continues to direct its product strategy and engineering quality.
Contact
Burdock is developing and testing its first clinical architecture and prototype applications. We would like to hear from clinicians, health and disability providers, researchers, technology partners, governance specialists and investors.