Press release from Ai-Media
Deafness services innovator and social enterprise, Ai-Media, today announced it had completed a series of milestones that has positioned the company for its next growth phase.
These include raising $5 million of equity capital from a range of private investors who have backed the company’s vision to use market-based approaches to develop services for people with disabilities, ahead of the introduction of a National Disability Insurance Scheme.
The Australian Government said it will support Ai-Media with a $1.7 million grant that will enable the company to accelerate commercialisation of its unique, internet-based innovation for accurate live captioning to assist deaf and hearing-impaired people in education and the workplace – Ai-LiveTM.
In addition, Ai-Media has secured a 5-year key contract renewal to provide captioning for FOXTEL’s owned and operated subscription television channels. Ai-Media also provides captioning services for other broadcasters.
The innovation grant will be provided through the Government’s Commercialisation Australia scheme to assist inventive companies take their services to market. The grant was announced by the Innovation Minister, Senator Kim Carr, and the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Carers, Senator Jan McLucas.
Ai-Media CEO Mr Tony Abrahams said: “Ai-LiveTM makes it much easier for deaf kids to participate in mainstream classrooms. We thank the Government for recognising and supporting our work, as well as the critical support we have had from the Departments of Education in NSW and Victoria, who partnered with us for the preliminary pilots.”
Ai-Media was one of three finalists in the recent National Disability Award, Business Category, for its television captioning services and its Ai-LiveTM invention which delivers real-time captioning on laptops and tablets in schools, tertiary education, and the workplace.
Ai-Media is working with State and Federal Governments to make Ai-LiveTM available to more schools nationally.
The Australian Human Rights Commission last month named Ai-Media as a finalist in its Awards for Business, based on its Ai-Live@Work service which enables people with deafness or hearing loss to participate easily in meetings through live captioning on laptops or tablets, while providing transcripts for all attendees. Ai-Live@Work is available through the Federal Government’s Employment Assistance Fund.