Budapest-based SignAll, developers of a unique technology that automatically translates American Sign Language (ASL) to spoken and written English, secured an additional EUR 1.7 million of investment, in its second round of financing to date. The round is led by one of the biggest investor companies in East-Central Europe and member of the Hungarian Development Bank Plc. Group, Hiventures with participation of previous investors Credo Ventures.
Following its first investment round three years ago, SignAll focused on developing the first automated translation system for ASL, culminating in a roll out of several “booths”, including one inside Gallaudet University’s Welcome Center. The company also received numerous prestigious accolades such as the CES Accessibility Award, featuring SignAll among the 5 “World’s Best Vendors” in Artificial Intelligence domain by Gartner, inclusion in London's Social Stock Exchange (SSX) for its impact, or mention on Forbes.com for its amazing use of Natural Language Processing.
“This investment will cover our continued market entry and extension of our activities. After a successful implementation of pilot projects in Washington DC, and more recently in Houston and Salt Lake City, we are ready to take things to the next level. We anticipate launching multiple projects in the US over the next two years, which will underline the scalability and flexibility of the technology to a range of users’ needs. Our primary focus is on the US market, but we plan to continue developing a tight relationship with the Hungarian community of Deaf and Hard of Hearing people as well.”
A recent regulation that requires federal contractors to engage in affirmative action for individuals with disabilities will expectedly facilitate the employment of people with targeted disabilities in the US. Part of those initiatives are expected to benefit the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community, and SignAll is well positioned to facilitate their smooth entry into the workplace.
CEO of the company Zsolt Robotka sheds light on future plans:
“One of our missions is to support impact projects, which align with the sustainability goals proclaimed by the UN, so having a long-term social and financial impact. We were in the pursuit of a mission-driven investee. SignAll’s innovative solution that enables spontaneous communication between Deaf and Hearing people has a great social value. It is a unique technological innovation using machine learning, computer vision and language processing. We are happy to secure SignAll’s further development and look forward to seeing the project’s developments.”
– Bence Katona, Deputy CEO, Hiventures.
"We have now been partners of SignAll for more than three years during which we saw the company evolve from a R&D project, all the way to having live systems in the field improving accessibility to services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. We are delighted to continue supporting it on its new focus to broaden the availability of its solution to the entire US market and beyond."
–Andrej Kiska, Partner Credo Ventures.
About
SignAll Technologies is the developer of a unique technology leveraging Natural Language Processing and Computer Vision to automatically translate sign language into text, which enables a spontaneous communication between Deaf, Hard of Hearing and Hearing. In July 2019, the company announced its second round of funding bringing its total capital raised to date to EUR 3.1 million.
Hiventures According to the reports of Crunchbase and Dow Jones, Hiventures is one of the most active venture capitals in the CEE region. They are handling funds of 66 billion HUF and managing more than 200 startups in their portfolio. Their mission is to support the cutting-edge ideas and freshly established startups in pre-seed, seed and scale-up stages with the professionnal supervision of the Hungarian Development Bank Plc. and the National Research, Development and Innovation office. Hiventures offers a completely unique combination of venture capital programs, flexible investment conditions and quick decisions-making structure.
Credo Ventures Credo Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm with offices in Prague and Silicon Valley. Investing in IT startups with a strong technological foundation, the Credo team strives to partner with outstanding founders to realize their global ambitions. It manages 150M € across 3 funds and to date, it has made more than 35 investments throughout Central and Eastern Europe including in the likes of Uipath, Productboard, Photoneo or Price f(x).
For questions and inquiries, please contact Zaryana Lisitsa zaryana.lisitsa@signall.us
