Voiceitt, one of 43North’s 2015 winners, has been reaching some serious milestones recently and continuing their technology to be a voice for the voiceless.
If you haven’t heard, Voiceitt is creating a voice recognition technology that can recognize particular pronunciations from users with speech language disorders and translate their statements into clear speech. Their technology opens up communication for those who have suffered from multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, multiple brain trauma, stroke, and much more. They will not only be able to communicate with others face to face but in the future may also have the ability to utilize voice controlled technologies (think Siri and Google Assist).
Co-Founder Danny Weissberg came up with the idea for this technology after his grandmother suffered from a stroke. He lost almost all communication with her and struggled with the incomplete solutions that were being offered. He wanted to find a way for individuals with speech language disorders to be able to have proper communication in real time. With over 1.3% of the general population, or 4 million Americans, suffering from speech disabilities, Voiceitt will be able to create opportunities for millions worldwide to better communicate.
They Raised How Much?
Voiceitt recently secured $2 million in seed funding from their investors, who include the Buffalo Angels, Amit Technion, Cahn Capital, Dreamit Ventures, Quake Capital, 1,000 Angels and other Angel Investors. They also announced they have matched this impressive investment funding with another $2 million in government grants, including a BIRD foundation grant, along with Voiceitt’s WNY-based partners, SCJ Associates, Griffith Consulting and ProductLogic.They are going to use this funding to further grow their company and advance their voice recognition technology to accelerate commercialization.
In The Meantime…
Voiceitt will be soon launching a new round of beta testing with a focus in the Buffalo and WNY area. Their team is actively seeking local nonprofit networks, institutional partners, hospital systems, researchers, and therapy providing services around Buffalo in order to gain around 100 users to test the technology beginning this month! They are seeking participants who have a clinical diagnosis of dysarthria (unclear articulation of speech) and are able to use the app regularly during the 3-month beta testing period. If you are interested in participating or want to learn more about the beta testing, you can contact Katie Ehlers, Community Manager at Voiceitt, at katie@voiceitt.com.
If you would like to learn more about their recent successes, you can read the following press release or an interesting article about Voiceitt from TechCrunch.