The start-up provides an app and AI system that assists members of the deaf community.

According to National Geographic, there are 300 different forms of sign language around the world, and it is used by more than 72m deaf or hard of hearing people worldwide.

For people who don’t use sign language on a daily basis, it can be challenging to understand every subtle aspect of the language. It is for this reason that DeafTawk was created, a start-up that provides a digital platform touting on-demand sign language interpretation services.

The founders of the business, Ali Shabbar, Wamiq Hasan and Abdul Qadeer, established the Denmark-based company in 2021.

Shabbar has experience in development and corporate sectors and is also the founder of Pakistan’s first mobile app awards, while Qadeer has 12 years of experience with global sign language associations.

Hasan is a software engineer, also from Pakistan. He was born deaf and, over the course of his life, has faced challenges accessing education in Pakistan. Hasan later moved to the US, where sign language services enabled him to complete a degree in computer engineering.

At DeafTawk, he leads product management. He has extensive experience with leading technology companies, including Telenor.

The trio first met while working at Telenor and were inspired by Hasan’s vision to create a platform that would become the “Google Translate of the deaf community”.

DeafTawk’s dual features

DeafTawk combines two key products to bridge the communication gap for the deaf community: its mobile app and its artificial intelligence (AI) system, which are both led by Hasan.

The app helps connect users with professional sign language interpreters in real time and supports multiple languages. Meanwhile, the AI system, DT360, translates voice and text into sign language (and vice versa) using natural language processing and computer vision. It features real-time sign language avatars, making it ideal for a plethora of industries, such as education, media and customer support.

“With continuous machine learning improvements, DeafTawk ensures reliable, accurate and inclusive communication tools for all,” the founders told SiliconRepublic.com.

At present, the company is raising a seed round of $1m, and recently enjoyed a victory at Raw Venture’s Global MediaTech Pitch Day in Potsdam, Germany, which is an event that celebrates innovation in media technology.

The trio added that this recognition “has already generated strong interest from potential investors”.

“There are now plenty of opportunities for growth and funding. However, for us, funding has always been secondary. We firmly believe in client revenue, scalability, and achieving product-market fit,” they said. “Instead, we focus on building a robust product with clear demand and product-market fit so that we can scale.

“Once we achieve this, then we can raise funds to provide a solid return on interest in three to four years.”

Despite what they referred to as “the global funding drought”, they added that they have faith that their product will thrive. “Start-ups should not solely rely on funding but focus on generating consistent revenue.

“For us, DeafTawk exemplifies how to sustain and grow without relying heavily on external funding – scaling to international markets purely based on our revenue.”

Hurdles thrown DeafTawk’s way

The trio were not shy in explaining how, along their journey, they encountered several challenges, and said one of the biggest hurdles was understanding how to scale their systems and raise funds effectively.

“We made many mistakes along the way, but we learned valuable lessons from them. For example, while Wamiq is an excellent coder and software engineer, we initially misunderstood what our customers truly needed.

“Through customer feedback, data analytics and empathy, we learned how to develop a more scalable, robust product, which is in continuous evolution to meet customer expectations.”

Other challenges they faced included developing its sales capacity, building a strong human resource capacity, and assembling its team members. Despite these dilemmas, the trio asserted that DeafTawk is experiencing “significant traction and growth”, with 54,000 monthly active users and having rendered more than 1.5m minutes of sign language interpretation services.

“We are proud to have 18 B2B clients, provided job opportunities to more than 1,800 professional sign language interpreters and positively impacted nearly 100,000 people globally,” they said.

“Looking ahead, our goal is to expand to 100 B2B clients within the next three years, further solidifying our position as a leader in accessibility solutions.”

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