NEWSROOM
Kara Technologies sign language avatar venture receives $1.3m seed funding
12 January 2023
Kara Technologies is one step closer to their goal of making sign language services widely available with $1.3 million raised in a recent round of seed funding. The company also recently reached new audiences through a partnership with Australian entertainer Emma Watkins, best known as a former member of the ever-popular Wiggles.
It’s all part of their ultimate mission to help companies all around the world make their services accessible to the Deaf community and those who use sign language, with the help of the company’s hyper-realistic signing avatars. Kara Technologies’ digital humans have high fidelity faces, giving them the ability to be fully expressive and engaging – easily connecting with the audience. They can preside at the bottom of any screen or on any device, interpreting content into a signed language or being a part of the content rather than just translating it.
Why digital avatars? Facial expressions add richness to communication for the Deaf, along the lines of vocal pitch for hearing people. They are an ideal tool for storytelling to young Deaf children who have not yet learned to read. One of Kara Technologies’ first projects was translating children’s picture books. Digital avatars also offer immediacy in communication. An early application has been the creation of emergency messages.
“In the next five years we want to be in the position where providing sign language accessibility for any business or any government around the world is a no-brainer – so any company, at any size or budget, can make their services accessible,” says Kara Technologies founder Arash Tayebi.
The seed funding – led by venture capital firms Te Pae ki te Rangi, Quident Ventures and Icehouse Venture, among others – will help Kara Technologies continue in their growth journey and their efforts to validate the “huge potential” of the accessibility market, says Arash.
“Our product is really tech-heavy so we want to make sure the Deaf community is supportive of our mission. We want to make sure the business is commercially viable, and we want to make sure we get market traction not just in New Zealand, but internationally as well.”
As part of this validation phase, Kara Technologies is testing different markets and trying new applications of their products, which is one of the reasons they jumped at the chance to work with former Wiggle, Emma Watkins. Emma is currently completing a PhD in sign language, dance and film and has recently launched a new children’s character, Emma Memma.
Utilising the advanced motion capture technology that is the foundation of their digital avatars, Kara Technologies created a special Emma Memma avatar to perform alongside the real-life Emma in her recent live show at the Sydney Opera House. In her Instagram post unveiling the avatar, Emma said she was “thrilled” to be working with the company on what had been a “wonderful adventure”.
“Working with Emma is a big steppingstone towards our goal of making sure that in the future, all kinds of entertainment can be accessible in sign language,” says Arash.
Starting up Kara Technologies has been a journey of discovery for Arash, who founded the company in December 2017 after being named one of the winners of that year’s Velocity $100K Challenge business planning competition run by the University of Auckland Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE). This provided Kara Technologies with a place in CIE’s VentureLab incubator, funding and mentorship. Kara Technologies received further investment and support through the University’s commercialisation company UniServices.
As an engineering student with no prior experience in starting a business, he credits the University for helping him get Kara Technologies off the ground.
“The support was amazing. Without the Centre of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and UniServices, we wouldn’t even exist at all – they gave us the confidence to do it and helped connect us to the resources we needed.”
Kara Tech metahumans
Kara Tech metahumans
12 January 2023
Kara Technologies is one step closer to their goal of making sign language services widely available with $1.3 million raised in a recent round of seed funding. The company also recently reached new audiences through a partnership with Australian entertainer Emma Watkins, best known as a former member of the ever-popular Wiggles.
It’s all part of their ultimate mission to help companies all around the world make their services accessible to the Deaf community and those who use sign language, with the help of the company’s hyper-realistic signing avatars. Kara Technologies’ digital humans have high fidelity faces, giving them the ability to be fully expressive and engaging – easily connecting with the audience. They can preside at the bottom of any screen or on any device, interpreting content into a signed language or being a part of the content rather than just translating it.
Why digital avatars? Facial expressions add richness to communication for the Deaf, along the lines of vocal pitch for hearing people. They are an ideal tool for storytelling to young Deaf children who have not yet learned to read. One of Kara Technologies’ first projects was translating children’s picture books. Digital avatars also offer immediacy in communication. An early application has been the creation of emergency messages.
“In the next five years we want to be in the position where providing sign language accessibility for any business or any government around the world is a no-brainer – so any company, at any size or budget, can make their services accessible,” says Kara Technologies founder Arash Tayebi.
The seed funding – led by venture capital firms Te Pae ki te Rangi, Quident Ventures and Icehouse Venture, among others – will help Kara Technologies continue in their growth journey and their efforts to validate the “huge potential” of the accessibility market, says Arash.
“Our product is really tech-heavy so we want to make sure the Deaf community is supportive of our mission. We want to make sure the business is commercially viable, and we want to make sure we get market traction not just in New Zealand, but internationally as well.”
As part of this validation phase, Kara Technologies is testing different markets and trying new applications of their products, which is one of the reasons they jumped at the chance to work with former Wiggle, Emma Watkins. Emma is currently completing a PhD in sign language, dance and film and has recently launched a new children’s character, Emma Memma.
Utilising the advanced motion capture technology that is the foundation of their digital avatars, Kara Technologies created a special Emma Memma avatar to perform alongside the real-life Emma in her recent live show at the Sydney Opera House. In her Instagram post unveiling the avatar, Emma said she was “thrilled” to be working with the company on what had been a “wonderful adventure”.
“Working with Emma is a big steppingstone towards our goal of making sure that in the future, all kinds of entertainment can be accessible in sign language,” says Arash.
Starting up Kara Technologies has been a journey of discovery for Arash, who founded the company in December 2017 after being named one of the winners of that year’s Velocity $100K Challenge business planning competition run by the University of Auckland Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE). This provided Kara Technologies with a place in CIE’s VentureLab incubator, funding and mentorship. Kara Technologies received further investment and support through the University’s commercialisation company UniServices.
As an engineering student with no prior experience in starting a business, he credits the University for helping him get Kara Technologies off the ground.
“The support was amazing. Without the Centre of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and UniServices, we wouldn’t even exist at all – they gave us the confidence to do it and helped connect us to the resources we needed.”
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