SIGNAPSE CEO: Sally Chalk
What is the company’s origin story? Signapse CEO Sally Chalk fell in love with sign language and the deaf community when she was 16. She has always loved working in ways that make a real difference to lives. It is estimated that there are over 460 million deaf people around the globe and when Chalk set up the company, it took six weeks to book an interpreter. After 20 years, they’d managed to get that time down to 30 minutes, something she is very proud of. But 30 minutes is not enough; Deaf people need access to information instantly on websites, streaming services and public spaces. To get that time down to a few seconds, they need AI. Chalk started talking to sign language tech providers in South America, Hungary and New Zealand. She found her way to Google in Israel – who noted that the best place in the industry was at the University of Surrey in Guildford. Her subsequent partnership with Richard Bowden and Ben Saunders was a match made in heaven; they were looking for a CEO and Chalk was looking for a tech partner, so they joined forces and formed Signapse. What is it working on right now? Signapse provides sign language through AI. Its synthetic signer provides Deaf people access to spoken and written languages through a simple API call, at the touch of a button. Signapse has two products: its first provides live information in transport hubs such as train stations, airports and bus stations in the UK and North America. Its second provides sign language translations using AI to global companies who want access for their Deaf staff or clients. For example, a bank wanting to communicate in sign language to clients who identify as Deaf, or a pharma company in need of digitally translated medical information. What is the next step? Signapse is moving towards live translation as fast as possible, for example, a conversation could veer off anywhere. The AI can predict what is going to be said and therefore produce it with a degree of accuracy. It uses large language models and generative AI; Chalk is confident the task of delivering a three-dimensional solution with nuance, a singular grammar and with regional complexities can be solved. What one thing does the company need most? Commercial traction: a global player/partner, who could help us with use cases, access to markets etc would be amazing. We have one in Germany with Giesecke and Devrient, so someone who is more local would be a fantastic asset for Signapse.
YEAR FOUNDED: 2022
COUNTRY: UK
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