Making life better<\/span> for people with disabilities is a laudable goal, but accessibility tech hasn\u2019t traditionally been popular among VCs. In 2022, disability tech companies attracted around $4 billion<\/span><\/a> in early-stage investments, which was a fraction of <\/span>fintech<\/span><\/a>\u2019s intake, for example.<\/span><\/p>\n One reason is that disability tech startups are often considered too niche to attain business viability \u2014 at least on the scale that venture capital demands. By definition, they are assumed to be <\/span>building for a minority<\/span><\/a>. However, some startups in the space have also begun serving the wider population \u2014 and throwing in some AI<\/span> always helps<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Both cases are a balancing act: The wider business case needs to make sense without losing sight of the startup\u2019s mission statement. AI, meanwhile, needs to be leveraged in a non-gimmicky way to pass the due diligence sniff test.<\/span><\/p>\n Some accessibility-focused startups understand these necessities, and their strategies are worth a look. Here are four European startups doing just that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Visualfy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Visualfy<\/span><\/a> leverages AI to improve the lives of people with hearing loss. The Spanish startup is focused on safety and autonomy \u2014 this includes a sound recognition AI that recognizes fire alarms and the sound of a baby crying at home. \u201cAI is crucial for our business,\u201d CEO Manel Alcaide told TechCrunch last month.<\/span><\/p>\n The firm offers consumers an app that also serves as a companion to Visualfy Home, its hardware suite consisting of three detectors and a main device. It also entered the public sector with Visualfy Places \u2014 it\u2019s no coincidence the startup <\/span>recently raised funding<\/span><\/a> from Spain\u2019s national state-owned railway company, Renfe.<\/span><\/p>\n One reason Visualfy is gaining traction on the B2B side is that public venues are required to provide accessibility, especially when health and safety are on the line.<\/span><\/p>\n In an interview, Alcaide explained that the devices and PA systems Visualfy will install in places like stadiums could also monitor air quality and other metrics. In the EU, meeting these other goals could help companies get subsidies while doing the right thing for deaf people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The latter is still very much top of mind for Visualfy, which is set up as a B Corp and employs both hearing and non-hearing people. Incorporating deaf individuals at all steps is a moral stance \u2014 \u201cnothing for us without us.\u201d But it is also common sense for better design, Alcaide said.<\/span><\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Audus Technologies<\/p>\n<\/div>\n People with full hearing disability are a smaller segment of a large and growing group. By 2050, <\/span>2.5 billion people<\/span><\/a> are projected to have some degree of hearing loss. Due to a mix of reasons, including stigma and cost, many won\u2019t wear hearing aids. That\u2019s the audience Dutch B2B startup Audus Technologies is targeting with its product, <\/span>Knisper<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Knisper uses AI to make speech more intelligible in environments such as cinemas, museums, public transportation and work calls. In practice, this means splitting the audio and mixing it back into a clearer track. It does so without increasing background volume noise (something not every hearing aid company can say), which makes it comfortable for anyone to listen to, even without hearing loss.<\/span><\/p>\n A former ENT doctor, Audus founder Marciano Ferrier explained that this wasn\u2019t possible to achieve with similar results before AI. Knisper was trained on thousands of videos in multiple languages, with variations such as background noise and distorted speech. This took work, but Audus is now leaving the development stage and focusing on adoption, managing director Joost Taverne told TechCrunch in February.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are already working with a number of museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston,\u201d said Taverne, a former MP and diplomat who spent time in the U.S. \u201cWe also do audiobooks with a Dutch publishing house, where we make the audio book of Anne Frank\u2019s diary accessible for people with hearing loss. And we now have the solution for the workspace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n B2B go-to-market is not an easy route, so it makes sense for Audus to focus on clients like museums. They are often noisy, which can make audio guides hard for anyone to hear. Using Knisper\u2019s technology to make them more intelligible brings benefits to the general public, not just those with hearing loss, which makes adoption easier.<\/span><\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Whispp<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Fellow Dutch startup <\/span>Whispp<\/span><\/a> also focuses on speech, but from a different angle. As TechCrunch reported from CES earlier this year, its technology converts whispered speech<\/span> into a natural voice<\/span><\/a> in real time.<\/span><\/p>\n Whispp\u2019s core target audience is \u201ca currently underserved group of worldwide 300 million people with voice disabilities who lost their voice but still have good articulation,\u201d its <\/span>site<\/span><\/a> explains.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n For instance, individuals with voice disorders that only leave them able to whisper or use their esophageal voice; or who stutter, like CEO Joris Castermans. He knows all too well how his speech is less affected when whispering.<\/span><\/p>\n For those with reduced articulation due to ALS, MS, Parkinson\u2019s or strokes, there are already solutions like text-to-speech apps \u2014 but these have downsides such as high latency. For people who are still able to articulate, that can be too much of a tradeoff.<\/span><\/p>\n Thanks to audio-to-audio AI, Whispp is able to provide them with a voice that can be produced in real time, is language agnostic and sounds real and natural. If users are able to provide a sample, it can even sound like their own voice.<\/span><\/p>\n Since there\u2019s no text in the middle, Whispp is also more secure than alternatives, Castermans told TechCrunch. This could open up use cases for non-silent patients who need to have confidential conversations, he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n How much users without voice issues would be willing to pay for Whispp\u2019s technology is unclear, but it also has several monetization routes to explore with its core audience, such as the subscription it charges for its voice calling app.<\/span><\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Acapela Group<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Whispp highlights the need some have to store their voice for later use. Known as <\/span>voice banking<\/span><\/a>, this process is what Acapela hopes to facilitate with a service it <\/span>launched last year<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Acapela Group, which was bought by Swedish tech accessibility company Tobii Dynavox for \u20ac9.8 million <\/span>in 2022<\/span><\/a>, has been in the text-to-speech space for <\/span>several decades<\/span><\/a>, but it is only recently that AI changed the picture for voice cloning.<\/span><\/p>\n The results are much better and the process is faster too. This will lower the bar for voice banking, and although not everyone will do it yet, there may be demand for individuals who know they are at risk of losing their voice after getting diagnosed with certain conditions.<\/span><\/p>\n Acapela doesn\u2019t charge for the initial phase of the service, which consists of recording 50 sentences. It is only when and if they need to install the voices on their devices that users have to buy it, either directly through Acapela<\/a> or via a third party (partner, reseller, a national health insurance program or other).<\/span><\/p>\n Besides the new potential unlocked by AI, the above examples show some routes that startups are exploring to expand beyond a core target of users with disabilities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Part of the thinking is that a larger addressable market can increase their prospective revenue and spread out the costs. But for their customers and partners, it is also a way to stay true to the <\/span>definition of accessibility<\/span><\/a> as \u201cthe quality of being able to be entered or used by everyone, including people who have a disability.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nVisualfy<\/span><\/h2>\n
Knisper<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"Audus](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Audus-team-Knisper.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nWhispp<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"Whispp](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Whispp-App-Setup.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAcapela<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/acapela-my-own-voice.jpg\")
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