Signapse Raises £2M in Seed Funding to Expand AI Sign Language Translation Services

Company Name: Signapse
Location: Guildford, UK
Sector: Assistive Technology, Artificial Intelligence
Funding Details: Closed a new seed funding round of £2M, comprising £1.5M from investors and £500k from Innovate UK. The round was led by Soulmates Ventures and Deeptech Seed Fund, with additional participation from the Royal Association for Deaf people, Empirical Ventures, CEAS Investments, and The FSE Group.

Purpose of Investment:

• Expand into the video translation market to enhance global Deaf accessibility.
• Develop translation capabilities for British Sign Language (BSL), enabling translation from any English sentence into BSL using AI.
• Improve the quality of AI-generated sign language videos.

Leadership: Led by CEO Sally Chalk and CTO Ben Saunders.

Product: Signapse develops Generative AI Sign Language translation software aimed at achieving photorealism and accuracy. This technology enhances accessibility for the Deaf community by providing reliable and understandable sign language translations.

About Company: Over the past two years, Signapse has utilized Generative AI to produce daily sign language translations for various applications, including 5,000 BSL train announcements across the UK and over 4,000 manual BSL translations for website and video content. The company has also extended its services to transport companies, improving Deaf accessibility at significant locations such as LNER Train Stations in the UK and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International (CVG) Airport in the USA.

Impact: With the new funding, Signapse aims to broaden its impact by entering the video translation market and enhancing its translation software. The focus on BSL and the commitment to improve video translation quality demonstrate Signapse's dedication to making significant advancements in accessibility for the Deaf community worldwide.