Kim Antoniou, Chief Executive and Founder of Auris Tech /Founder of Fonetti, a voice-recognition reading app for children and dyslexic children.
The Fonetti app allows children to read aloud with the software highlighting the words the read correctly green and if they have trouble they can double tap them to hear how they are read. The premise being to inspire a love for reading in students such as those with dyslexia that may struggle with that love.
Kim Antoniou was discouraged when trying to help her own grandson who was struggling to learn how to read and found little support by way of technology to help him. She was intrigued that her grandson could use her smartphone easily and yet found reading so difficult. This sparked her idea for tablet/mobile ready software that could listen to and help students with their reading. She researched and realized that this software to use for her app idea wasn’t in existence yet and therefore there was a gap in this area of the education technology market. Kim sought out her partner, Bill Bungay (an advertising tycoon turned venture capitalist) and they went on to invent Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) technology with the help of Dr. Peter Bell that could detect different accents (although mainly UK at this time) and the voices of children specifically.
Kim is no stranger to technology venture success as she previous created and ran Kafoodle, a successful software program designed for the food industry to ensure compliance and food transparency from supplier to restaurant, as well as having been the CEO for a construction based software program called, TWP Apps. She has a wealth of experience in business to lend to her ventures from early on in her career doing marketing, sales and property management at her family’s company Pembroke Property Management.
Her team seems to be of well-established backgrounds as her partner Bill Bungay has a history of success in advertising and now is an Angel Investor investing in future opportunities. Her ASR Director / Reader University of Edinburgh Dr. Peter Bell, a former Speech Scientist and now Speech Reader at the University of Edinburgh teaches automatic speech recognition and related topics, and provides consultancy to companies regarding speech technologies, has also had an impressive career. Her Non Exec Chairman / Board Director Graham Corfield is a very experienced COO having worked with a plethora of successful companies including Just Eats. Colin Tankard the Chief Privacy Officer / Company Director also hosts an impressive background having worked as a Managing Director at Digital Pathways, a cyber-security firm, along with being Managing Director of DSCR Ltd. his own company. Sharon Aldridge Operations Director seemed to have little background listed online however she was a former bank analyst. Finally Andrew Sugden Chief Financial Officer who also has a wealth of experience having been the Financial Officer for many notable businesses including the BBC and Nielsen Book Services Ltd.
The reason I chose this founder to present was because although Kim was already very successful in her career, I admired her drive and that she didn’t just sit back and coast of these prior successes and sought to find a way to use her experience, connections and tools in order to help her grandson and others who may have trouble with reading by taking the 8 years it took to create the technology and Fonetti app in order to help them. I also chose this founder because having taught a few students with dyslexia, I found a lack of information and help for them online and therefore I am always interested in new technology and educational resources that may aid them in their quest to learn how to read successfully and have the confidence behind this.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-antoniou/details/experience/
Alexis, Kim Antoniou to me seems to have the whole package – what an inspiration! She has a great, widely affecting foundational idea (helping children with dyslexia) that she is trying to assist, a history of successful business ventures (on her own), an angel investor that she has a good relationship with (her husband – ha!), and a team of heavily qualified individuals surrounding her: including a speech scientist which brings a great deal of legitimacy to the table for Fonetti. I think her efforts here in creating this platform, garnering support, and building her team are great examples for would-be-entrepreneurs, and a perfect example of “I’ve found a problem, what am I going to do about it?” entrepreneurial spirit.
I’m warmed by the fact that this venture was brought forward through a grandmother’s desire to help her grandson and other children who struggle with reading. Kim’s passion for this product, and being well versed in other entrepreneurial pursuits previous to this product, no doubt helped her bring this venture to fruition. What seems different and better about this product is the real time speech recognition software said to accelerate learning. If the child reads aloud the word correctly the word will light up in green, if they are stuck on a word it can be double clicked to reveal a clue, this data can then be sent to parents and teachers.