play_arrow
View
49649
Key2enable Assistive Technology
Developing People with disabilities skills with Tech4good!
Brazil
Market: Education, training, Artificial Intelligence, Mobile applications
Stage of the project: Operating business
Date of last change: 11.10.2020
Brazil
Market: Education, training, Artificial Intelligence, Mobile applications
Stage of the project: Operating business
Date of last change: 11.10.2020
Idea
Key2enable empowers People with disabilities to develop their skills and individualities by providing innovative Assistive Technology tools that together with a unique inclusive educational platform for school inclusion, allow them to efficiently use computers and mobile devices for communicating, learning, gaming, work and ultimately live with greater autonomy to be economically sustainable in the future. We focus on their skills and abilities using educational platforms with our All-in-one Hardware solution to stimulate their brains so they can thrive.
Current Status
Today we are working within more than 400 public schools, 110 rehabilitation centers, and more than 5000 end-users (People with disabilities) that are students or patients inside these facilities.
We have business units in Brazil, in the US, United Arab Emirates and Chile.
We have business units in Brazil, in the US, United Arab Emirates and Chile.
Market
According to projections by market research company Coherent Market Insights, the global assistive technology market will reach $26 billion by 2024, nearly doubling fr om $14 billion in 2015. Zion Market Research is even more optimistic about the industry’s trajectory, with an estimate of $31 billion in 2024 and an annual growth rate of 7.4 percent.
Regardless of the exact figure, analysts agree that the assistive technology industry will grow rapidly in the next several years. According to the who.int, Globally, more than 1 billion people need 1 or more assistive products. Talking about our specific market, the world is changing and people with disabilities need and want to work. But most of them did not have an educational background to improve their skills. That's exactly wh ere we enter to solve this GAP. Our technology can drastically change early childhood education and the most important is: Parents, Healthcare professionals and teachers want to do that. Only in the UAE for example. We have 1200 schools and 80 Rehabilitation centers. If only 10% of them adopt our solution, which we think it is a very small number, and if only 5% of people with disabilities have our solution inside their homes, we are talking about € 1.0M a year. We are not talking about consultancy or side sales which could rise that number in 30% more. For the MEA market alone the numbers are at least 30X more.
Our product has different kinds of customers:
Disabled people and families: these customers purchase the product to empower a person, making way for him or her to use computers and mobile devices by himself or herself. We give them confidence, autonomy, privacy, and, in many cases, a compelling new way of communicating with the family and other people.
Rehabilitation Centers and clinics: It is a powerful tool for several kinds of rehabilitation therapies attended by people with disabilities such as the consequences of cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, ALS, strokes, Parkinson's disease, congenital malformation, amputations, and many others.
Professionals: They take significant advantage of our solution with their patients, including occupational therapists, Speech therapists, behavior therapists, and physiotherapists.
Schools: Our solution provides endless possibilities for improving the learning process of students with disabilities. Our solution offers several ways of using a computer or mobile device for writing, playing games, attending computer-assisted lessons, and much more.
Regardless of the exact figure, analysts agree that the assistive technology industry will grow rapidly in the next several years. According to the who.int, Globally, more than 1 billion people need 1 or more assistive products. Talking about our specific market, the world is changing and people with disabilities need and want to work. But most of them did not have an educational background to improve their skills. That's exactly wh ere we enter to solve this GAP. Our technology can drastically change early childhood education and the most important is: Parents, Healthcare professionals and teachers want to do that. Only in the UAE for example. We have 1200 schools and 80 Rehabilitation centers. If only 10% of them adopt our solution, which we think it is a very small number, and if only 5% of people with disabilities have our solution inside their homes, we are talking about € 1.0M a year. We are not talking about consultancy or side sales which could rise that number in 30% more. For the MEA market alone the numbers are at least 30X more.
Our product has different kinds of customers:
Disabled people and families: these customers purchase the product to empower a person, making way for him or her to use computers and mobile devices by himself or herself. We give them confidence, autonomy, privacy, and, in many cases, a compelling new way of communicating with the family and other people.
Rehabilitation Centers and clinics: It is a powerful tool for several kinds of rehabilitation therapies attended by people with disabilities such as the consequences of cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, ALS, strokes, Parkinson's disease, congenital malformation, amputations, and many others.
Professionals: They take significant advantage of our solution with their patients, including occupational therapists, Speech therapists, behavior therapists, and physiotherapists.
Schools: Our solution provides endless possibilities for improving the learning process of students with disabilities. Our solution offers several ways of using a computer or mobile device for writing, playing games, attending computer-assisted lessons, and much more.
Problem or Opportunity
People with disabilities that are unable to use computers and mobile devices due to motion limitations of lack of fine motor coordination. More than 3% of a population have physical or motor disabilities and more than 15% have other types of disabilities. More than 1 billion people need 1 or more Assistive Technology products. Lack of literacy, numeracy, and cognitive development, when allied to motor skills, impact the future with diseases, disabilities, and the future of Children with disabilities, as they face multiple forms of discrimination which leads to their exclusion from society and school. Lack of resources to accommodate them, challenges they face in accessing education and inability of the education system to ensure quality education
The lack of a complete platform that can help teachers or professionals in the field of inclusion to improve the way they welcome these children into the school and inside regular classrooms so that they can learn more quickly and at the same time with quality, completely disrupts the future of this individual taking away his chances of being self-sustainable. Not educating them means losing the possibility of knowing their skills in the future.
The lack of a complete platform that can help teachers or professionals in the field of inclusion to improve the way they welcome these children into the school and inside regular classrooms so that they can learn more quickly and at the same time with quality, completely disrupts the future of this individual taking away his chances of being self-sustainable. Not educating them means losing the possibility of knowing their skills in the future.
Solution (product or service)
Key2enable has developed a complete set of Assistive Technology composed by Hardware and Software that is an ALL-IN-ONE solution with which ANY other accessories in the market can be connected, enabling them to communicate, learn, work, play, engage, deliver content, local or on-line, curriculum-based or supplementary, to their homes, schools, clinics, and rehabilitation centers. Our solution Key-x primarily works as a keyboard and a mouse and brings digital accessibility to people with disabilities by providing innovative tools for accessing computers with greater autonomy even using eye blinks or slight body gestures, for communicating, learning, gaming and living. Together with our educational platform, people with intellectual disabilities efficiently use computers and mobile devices. If scaled globally it will reach Millions of people including their family, schools, and the community they live. The innovation of our solution resides in its design, built to fit a wide variety of motion limitations while being compatible with any computer, smartphones, and tablets. Our device can be used by children and adults. Some of the disabilities that we help: Cerebral Palsy, Motor sequels of strokes, Sequels of spinal cord injuries, ALS, Parkinson's disease, Intellectual disabilities (including Down syndrome and many cases of autism). Using our software we can detect in childhood, some dysfunctions that could be taken care of when they are in the beginning. Our solution changes the way these children are educated in early childhood. Schools and rehabilitation centers spend a huge budget on many Assistive Technology that alone won't be able to do what we do.
Competitors
Key2enable developed during the last four years a complete set of Assistive Technology composed by hardware and Software solutions that together attends more than 80% of all disabilities found inside schools and rehabilitation centers.
The Key- X multi functional keyboard solution is a unique innovation of its kind. Most of our competitors offer communication devices to enable individuals with disabilities to use technology. Most of them are not compatible with different operating systems (i.e. Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Tablets, etc).
Many have several limitations that make them ineffective for use by people with various forms of physical, motor, and intellectual disabilities. Key2enable developed an ALL-IN-ONE solution with which ANY other Assistive-Technology in the market can be connected, enabling them to communicate, learn, work, play, deliver content, local or on-line,curriculum-based or otherwise, to their homes, schools, clinics, and rehabilitation centers.
The novelty of our innovation also resides in the possibility of our solution to accept all other peripherals and accessories of Assistive technology manufactured by other companies, making our solution unique and thereby facilitating their use by our end users, including with reuse of technologies that alone no longer made sense.
It is also present in Universal Design, which is the possibility that a person without disabilities may use the solution.
We use all of the solution
The Key- X multi functional keyboard solution is a unique innovation of its kind. Most of our competitors offer communication devices to enable individuals with disabilities to use technology. Most of them are not compatible with different operating systems (i.e. Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Tablets, etc).
Many have several limitations that make them ineffective for use by people with various forms of physical, motor, and intellectual disabilities. Key2enable developed an ALL-IN-ONE solution with which ANY other Assistive-Technology in the market can be connected, enabling them to communicate, learn, work, play, deliver content, local or on-line,curriculum-based or otherwise, to their homes, schools, clinics, and rehabilitation centers.
The novelty of our innovation also resides in the possibility of our solution to accept all other peripherals and accessories of Assistive technology manufactured by other companies, making our solution unique and thereby facilitating their use by our end users, including with reuse of technologies that alone no longer made sense.
It is also present in Universal Design, which is the possibility that a person without disabilities may use the solution.
We use all of the solution
Advantages or differentiators
Key2enable developed during the last years a complete set of Assistive Technology composed by hardware and Software solutions that together attends more than 80% of all disabilities found inside schools and rehabilitation centers.
The Key- X multifunctional keyboard solution is a unique innovation of its kind. Most of our competitors offer communication devices to enable individuals with disabilities to use technology. Most of them are not compatible with different operating systems (i.e. Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Tablets, etc).
Many have several limitations that make them ineffective for use by people with various forms of physical, motor, and intellectual disabilities. Key2enable developed an ALL-IN-ONE solution with which ANY other Assistive-Technology in the market can be connected, enabling them to communicate, learn, work, play, deliver content, local or on-line,curriculum-based or otherwise, to their homes, schools, clinics, and rehabilitation centers.
The novelty of our innovation also resides in the possibility of our solution to accept all other peripherals and accessories of Assistive technology manufactured by other companies, making our solution unique and thereby facilitating their use by our end users, including with reuse of technologies that alone no longer made sense.
It is also present in Universal Design, which is the possibility that a person without disabilities may use the solution. Our unfair advantage is: We know how to work with Special Education. When we combine what we have created with years of knowledge working in the field with education, we are far away from all competitors that, most of the time, produces only the tool, but not the complete environment.
The Key- X multifunctional keyboard solution is a unique innovation of its kind. Most of our competitors offer communication devices to enable individuals with disabilities to use technology. Most of them are not compatible with different operating systems (i.e. Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Tablets, etc).
Many have several limitations that make them ineffective for use by people with various forms of physical, motor, and intellectual disabilities. Key2enable developed an ALL-IN-ONE solution with which ANY other Assistive-Technology in the market can be connected, enabling them to communicate, learn, work, play, deliver content, local or on-line,curriculum-based or otherwise, to their homes, schools, clinics, and rehabilitation centers.
The novelty of our innovation also resides in the possibility of our solution to accept all other peripherals and accessories of Assistive technology manufactured by other companies, making our solution unique and thereby facilitating their use by our end users, including with reuse of technologies that alone no longer made sense.
It is also present in Universal Design, which is the possibility that a person without disabilities may use the solution. Our unfair advantage is: We know how to work with Special Education. When we combine what we have created with years of knowledge working in the field with education, we are far away from all competitors that, most of the time, produces only the tool, but not the complete environment.
Finance
We operate with Subscription-based plans or built-to-fit plans for Private and Public Schools, Rehabilitation centers, clinics, special education professionals and we use e-commerce and social media to reach the end-user. We call it Accessibility as a Service. Key2enable Institutionally also promotes its exponential Assistive technologies through grants and global competitions. For the end-user, we are the solution for the parents who, most of the time, struggle to find the best tools for their Kids. First, we understand their needs; then, we indicate the best one in a subscription-based plan.
For Schools, rehabilitation centers, and Healthcare professionals, we install all the solutions inside the classrooms, or clinics and we train the teachers and the caretakers to use them with the children. By doing that, we give them autonomy, so they become the main actors in their learning process, which, of course, will shorten the time students usually take to develop their skills. We also sell training and consultancy. Our subscriptions model plans starts with monthly payment from €60 to €500 but it can get higher if the customer needs consultancy or a dedicated professional. In a nutshell what we do is: For B2C - Direct approach/consultancy for parents that want their children to communicate and learn from activities inside their homes or wherever they need starting from €60.00
For B2B & B2G - (Schools & Rehab Centers/Big Clinics) - Direct approach/consultancy for Special Education professionals, teachers, shadow teachers, health care professionals that need a complete solution for school inclusion or rehabilitation purposes for their students/patients to communicate and learn from activities inside classrooms, place programs, clinics or even inside their homes and wherever they need starting from €350.00.
For B2B - (Self Employed occupational Therapists and Small clinics) - Direct approach/consultancy for health care professionals that need a complete solution for rehabilitation, learning and communicating purposes for their patients to use inside their clinics or even inside the homes of the patients during a consultation starting from €80.00.
For Schools, rehabilitation centers, and Healthcare professionals, we install all the solutions inside the classrooms, or clinics and we train the teachers and the caretakers to use them with the children. By doing that, we give them autonomy, so they become the main actors in their learning process, which, of course, will shorten the time students usually take to develop their skills. We also sell training and consultancy. Our subscriptions model plans starts with monthly payment from €60 to €500 but it can get higher if the customer needs consultancy or a dedicated professional. In a nutshell what we do is: For B2C - Direct approach/consultancy for parents that want their children to communicate and learn from activities inside their homes or wherever they need starting from €60.00
For B2B & B2G - (Schools & Rehab Centers/Big Clinics) - Direct approach/consultancy for Special Education professionals, teachers, shadow teachers, health care professionals that need a complete solution for school inclusion or rehabilitation purposes for their students/patients to communicate and learn from activities inside classrooms, place programs, clinics or even inside their homes and wherever they need starting from €350.00.
For B2B - (Self Employed occupational Therapists and Small clinics) - Direct approach/consultancy for health care professionals that need a complete solution for rehabilitation, learning and communicating purposes for their patients to use inside their clinics or even inside the homes of the patients during a consultation starting from €80.00.
Business model
Explaining B2B - B2G first:
As explained before, we have a complete set of Assistive Technology composed by Hardware and Software tools that we call an ALL-IN-ONE solution that can welcome all other assistive technologies that sometimes are present inside Schools and Rehabilitation centers. Most of these tools enable only communication and sometimes the use of technology. Most of the time is not aligned to a curriculum-based educational platform or does not offer a core package of tools that cover classroom essentials for children with disabilities.
We start offering free workshops for training teachers who directly work with the children to show how they can improve the learning process with our solution. We usually do this inside the school, and if it is a Public school, they often call other branches. After the workshop, in some cases, we propose a pilot. By piloting, we install some units in the school and let them use it with the children.
100% of all our workshops turned into sales until now. They find they will be able to improve the way to conduct classes and will shorten the time they take to learn by X times.
We understand that when we become an essential tool inside classrooms to include children with disabilities, maybe we won’t need to conduct more workshops because some governments will already certify it. But until there is the best way we found it and it is running perfectly well. It is also working flawlessly for e-learning during the pandemic.
We get paid monthly with contracts signed between each party.
Explaining B2C - For the end-user, we are the solution for the parents who, most of the time, struggle to find the best tools for their Kids. First, we understand their needs; then, we indicate the best one in a subscription-based plan. We teach parents using any on-line platform, and we ship the items to them. We can continue with consultancy, depending on the family needs. Usually, it takes some days for them to send us amazing videos showing the progress of their child.
We get paid monthly by credit cards or other forms of payment, which vary from country to country.
Why are we different?
We have this direct contact with the families, teachers, and professionals who are directly involved with people with disabilities. We are the best “connection” between them and their loved ones because we let them “Try & Buy,” which is almost impossible to do with other technologies that are usually sold in market places.
I know it is not as easy as some other startups are doing with their ideas and solutions, but although what we do is scalable, it is a very new concept, and we still need to put our feet in the street to do that. It is also humanitarian, and we have a clear mission that involves the future of a child, a family, and their community. That’s why we need to do it one by one to change as many minds as we can to transform our idea into an essential solution that will be replicable and scalable.
As explained before, we have a complete set of Assistive Technology composed by Hardware and Software tools that we call an ALL-IN-ONE solution that can welcome all other assistive technologies that sometimes are present inside Schools and Rehabilitation centers. Most of these tools enable only communication and sometimes the use of technology. Most of the time is not aligned to a curriculum-based educational platform or does not offer a core package of tools that cover classroom essentials for children with disabilities.
We start offering free workshops for training teachers who directly work with the children to show how they can improve the learning process with our solution. We usually do this inside the school, and if it is a Public school, they often call other branches. After the workshop, in some cases, we propose a pilot. By piloting, we install some units in the school and let them use it with the children.
100% of all our workshops turned into sales until now. They find they will be able to improve the way to conduct classes and will shorten the time they take to learn by X times.
We understand that when we become an essential tool inside classrooms to include children with disabilities, maybe we won’t need to conduct more workshops because some governments will already certify it. But until there is the best way we found it and it is running perfectly well. It is also working flawlessly for e-learning during the pandemic.
We get paid monthly with contracts signed between each party.
Explaining B2C - For the end-user, we are the solution for the parents who, most of the time, struggle to find the best tools for their Kids. First, we understand their needs; then, we indicate the best one in a subscription-based plan. We teach parents using any on-line platform, and we ship the items to them. We can continue with consultancy, depending on the family needs. Usually, it takes some days for them to send us amazing videos showing the progress of their child.
We get paid monthly by credit cards or other forms of payment, which vary from country to country.
Why are we different?
We have this direct contact with the families, teachers, and professionals who are directly involved with people with disabilities. We are the best “connection” between them and their loved ones because we let them “Try & Buy,” which is almost impossible to do with other technologies that are usually sold in market places.
I know it is not as easy as some other startups are doing with their ideas and solutions, but although what we do is scalable, it is a very new concept, and we still need to put our feet in the street to do that. It is also humanitarian, and we have a clear mission that involves the future of a child, a family, and their community. That’s why we need to do it one by one to change as many minds as we can to transform our idea into an essential solution that will be replicable and scalable.
Money will be spent on
1 - Dedicated Social media & Marketers
2 - Web/graphics Designer
3 - Business developer (Sales)
4 - One more programmer (Artificial Intelligence experience)
5 - Data scientist (Or can be done with a third party)
6 - Professional to measure our social impact. (Can be third parties)
7 - Teachers and professionals who work directly with people with disabilities.
2 - Web/graphics Designer
3 - Business developer (Sales)
4 - One more programmer (Artificial Intelligence experience)
5 - Data scientist (Or can be done with a third party)
6 - Professional to measure our social impact. (Can be third parties)
7 - Teachers and professionals who work directly with people with disabilities.
Offer for investor
on our last round, we had an investment of 220 K for 3%.
Now we have something different in mind. We want our business unit in the UAE to control MENASA. And we want an investor to grow in this region. Only this region can have revenue of hundreds of millions USD.
We are asking for 600K for 10% or 1M for 15%
Now we have something different in mind. We want our business unit in the UAE to control MENASA. And we want an investor to grow in this region. Only this region can have revenue of hundreds of millions USD.
We are asking for 600K for 10% or 1M for 15%
Team or Management
Risks
The prevalence and main causes of disability, economic and social consequences of disabilities, prevention and risk mitigation mechanisms, and policies and strategies to create the enabling environment which permits persons with disabilities full participation in society, including access to education and labor force, and participation in decision making.
If the government is a partner, the sky is the limit. If not, we have to go to each school and do a massive job with principals and teachers of Special Education. We did it in Brazil. We have 400 schools in many cities and municipalities using our solution because we didn't wait for the government to do their job. We understand that this is a risk, but with work and results we can mitigate it.
If the government is a partner, the sky is the limit. If not, we have to go to each school and do a massive job with principals and teachers of Special Education. We did it in Brazil. We have 400 schools in many cities and municipalities using our solution because we didn't wait for the government to do their job. We understand that this is a risk, but with work and results we can mitigate it.
Incubation/Acceleration programs accomplishment
In 2018, we became a Portfolio company of Singularity University Ventures www.su.org/ventures, and we were incubated/accelerated in Silicon Valley from April to June 2018. April 2019 - Winner @ GSVC 2019 - Global Social Venture Competition Berkeley Hass University of California - - https://gsvc.org/2019-global-finals/ - We stayed there for two months in April 2019. August 2019 - Startup Chile - Huella program from Corfo, an authority from Chile's Government - 6 months. September 2019 - MSI Social impact Incubator program form MA'AN an Authority from the Department of Community Development of Abu Dhabi. 4 Months from September 2019 to January 2020. The Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund (MBRIF) announced ten local and global businesses for its Summer Cohort MBRIF Accelerator program. Key2Enable was selected to participate. https://bit.ly/2rbmVQM - 3 months - Started January 2020 All these achievements provided us with all technical, world-class services and coaching, state of the art mentorship to accelerate our businesses, elevate capabilities, unlock value, and achieve knowledge growth. Most of our awards and recognitions can be found here: https://bit.ly/2CNFHCS
Won the competition and other awards
Below are the ones with great visibility:
1-Singularity University California Portfolio company- www.su.org/ventures
2–Berkeley Haas California winner of Global-Social-Venture-Competition- 700 Startups from 57 countries. https://bit.ly/3gAhJd4
3-December-2018–Winner of Edtech competition Kryptolabs Abu Dhabi. 800 applications from all around the world. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/324905
4–March-2019 (400+ applications from all over the world) We won category Education of Special world games Innovation Challenge competition, Abu Dhabi, https://bit.ly/2vXAGEU
5–Selected for the incubation program held by the Authority of Social Contribution from the Department-of-Community-Development in Abu Dhabi, Ma’an (September-2019). https://bit.ly/2W68kDg
6-first place at the main competition for startups in the UAE, the GITEX-Superstars-Supernova-Challenge in October-2019 -4000 applicants
https://bit.ly/2wPemx8
7-The Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund (MBRIF) Accelerator program.https://bit.ly/33b8Pxl
1-Singularity University California Portfolio company- www.su.org/ventures
2–Berkeley Haas California winner of Global-Social-Venture-Competition- 700 Startups from 57 countries. https://bit.ly/3gAhJd4
3-December-2018–Winner of Edtech competition Kryptolabs Abu Dhabi. 800 applications from all around the world. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/324905
4–March-2019 (400+ applications from all over the world) We won category Education of Special world games Innovation Challenge competition, Abu Dhabi, https://bit.ly/2vXAGEU
5–Selected for the incubation program held by the Authority of Social Contribution from the Department-of-Community-Development in Abu Dhabi, Ma’an (September-2019). https://bit.ly/2W68kDg
6-first place at the main competition for startups in the UAE, the GITEX-Superstars-Supernova-Challenge in October-2019 -4000 applicants
https://bit.ly/2wPemx8
7-The Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund (MBRIF) Accelerator program.https://bit.ly/33b8Pxl
Invention/Patent
We have a PCT patent of the combination and also for the project of the main unit that we call Key-x. Its origin is from Brazil but we also started it in the US.
Photos
Product Video
Presentation
Sign in/Sign up