LEAP and SmartZone Supported Venture Shows Signs of Strong Growth with Acquisition
East Lansing, Mich. (August 11, 2026) — The Lansing Economic Area Partnership (LEAP) and the Lansing Regional SmartZone are excited to announce that LEAP and SmartZone-supported East Lansing startup AbleVu has acquired Autism Travel Club, a platform that connects families and individuals with autism-supportive destinations, hotels, restaurants, attractions, and travel resources.
“This is an important step forward for AbleVu,” said Meegan Winters, Founder and CEO of AbleVu. “Autism Travel Club has built meaningful trust with families, destinations, and businesses that care about creating more welcoming experiences. Bringing Autism Travel Club into the AbleVu ecosystem allows us to expand that work while strengthening the information, relationships, and insight behind our AI-powered accessibility platform.”
“We’re excited to see growth like AbleVu’s,” said Bob Trezise, LEAP president and CEO. “The Lansing region is showing that tech startups thrive here. From Michigan State University’s amazing lab-to-market endeavors to our public policy makers to our private sector’s local talent pipeline, the Lansing region has so much to offer the tech sector.”
The acquisition also supports AbleVu’s long-term vision for AbleBot, the company’s AI-powered accessibility assistant. AbleBot is being designed to bring accessibility information from businesses, destinations, contributors, partners, and public sources into one easy-to-search experience. Instead of requiring people to dig through websites, reviews, PDFs, or scattered online listings, AbleVu’s goal is to allow users to ask accessibility questions in plain language and receive practical information that helps them make more confident decisions.
The acquisition builds on other recent momentum for AbleVu, including a newly announced strategic partnership with Autism Double-Checked, a recognized leader in autism readiness training for the travel and hospitality industry. Together, the moves deepen AbleVu’s autism-travel expertise from both the consumer side (Autism Travel Club) and the industry-training side (Autism Double-Checked).
Alongside the acquisition, AbleVu is adding a new position to their team—founding strategic growth partner. This comes on the heels of bringing Amy Jukes on as COO earlier this year.
In addition to receiving funding through LEAP’s Small Business Support Hub, AbleVu founder Meegan Winters was featured on the SmartZone supported 517 Entrepreneurship & Innovation Week event Hot Bytes, represented mid-Michigan at Michigan Tech Week 2026, and was part of a very select group of innovators invited to the Michigan Capital Network Capital Angels spring event. Winters is a current participant of the 2026-2027 Conquer Accelerator cohort, presented by the MSU Research Foundation.
More about the company’s work can be found here: AbleVu.com
