Winning the 2016 Talent Unleashed Award in Europe for Best Digital SME, Rebecca Bright of Therapy Box speaks about her business, how they started and how it felt to win at the EU awards.
We provide life changing apps for people with communication disabilities. We allow people with MND/ALS to be able to bank their voice when they know they will lose it, have their voice synthesised to then use in our app, Predictable. We have built our apps to enable people with communication disabilities to be able to speak using whatever physical means they have – a puff of air; an eye blink or a finger tap.
Tell us a little about Therapy Box
Our business aims to innovate by focusing on inclusion. By thinking differently about how technology can address huge burdens for people with disabilities. We have been able to come up with solutions that allow people to be independent and maintain their role in society despite debilitating disabilities. We have rap grown since launching its first app to become the leader in the field of using assertive technology on mobile platforms. We are thinking differently by not just using available technology to solve problems for people with disabilities. We are investing in R&D; collaborating with academics in UK and US universities to push the boundaries of what technology can do. In doing so, we are able to create innovative apps for people with disabilities; and reuse our learning to provide services for other 3rd party clients.
What made you start the business?
We have grown since launching our first app to become the leader in the field of using assertive technology on mobile platforms. We look to reinvest our profit to continue our R&D and this year. We are embarking on new challenges – such as the world’s first speech recognition system to be used by people with disordered speech; a remote speech therapy system to help put a dent in NHS waiting times and apps for clients including the UN, Jisc and several UK universities. We want to make money. We want to be sustainable. Each year we have achieved this – growing our product range and using our expertise to solve new problems. At the heart of the business is the desire to help people. Just today a man emailed to say his wife had passed away from MND but by using one of our apps the last 2 years of her life she had been able to communicate with him and maintain a quality of life.
What about your success to date.
We have 30+ apps available in the AppStore and GooglePlay Stores. These are available in 11 languages. There are 50,000 people around the world using our apps to help them communicate. From children with autism; teenagers with dyslexia to people after a stroke – the apps are enabling them to participate more fully in their lives. Financially, we have seen 30% growth in app sales year on year since launching the first app in 2011. We’ve won a number of awards (Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation; TechUK best mHealth developer; Ericsson Award; Appsters Most Innovative App; Nectar Small Business Award) and co-founder, Rebecca Bright was awarded an MBE.
How did it feel to win at the European Awards?
We are delighted to have won this award and hope to gain some great PR from it. We focus on health care and educational apps and one of the healthcare apps actually helped us to win this award. Hopefully we can take it one step further and win at the global event in Australia.