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BeneTalk

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On-demand support for people who stutter and their families to improve their quality of life.

110%
 - 
Funded 13 Sep 2023
£150,005 target
£166,238 from 190 investors
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Business overview

Location Beckenham, United Kingdom
Social media
Website www.benetalk.com/
Sectors Healthcare Digital Mixed B2B/B2C
Company number 09914647
Incorporation date 14 Dec 2015
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Investment summary

Type Equity
Valuation (pre-money) £1.6M
Equity offered 9.22%
Tax relief

EIS

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Business highlights

  • £2M raised to date - Recently won £640k in grants
  • 85% of users in 193 countries find it effective
  • Penguin app Included in 5 NHS trusts pathways
  • CEO stutters. CTO has 25yrs of software experience
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Key features

  • Secondary Market
  • Nominee investment min. £13.46 +
  • Direct investment min. £25,000.00 +

Idea

Introduction

Mission: Helping EVERYONE find joy in speaking.

Having witnessed firsthand the importance of early intervention and continuous support for those who stutter, we are motivated to develop an innovative digital therapeutic solution. BeneTalk offers on-demand assistance to individuals who stutter and their families, improving their quality of life and fostering self-confidence.

Impact: Stuttering is a lifelong challenge, affecting 8% of children and persisting into adulthood for 2% of individuals, affecting millions worldwide. Unfortunately, parents can often feel inadequate in supporting their children, leading to a higher risk of low self-esteem and mental health issues.

Accessibility Barriers: Access to timely and effective speech therapy is limited, with fewer than 1% of Speech & Language Therapists specialising in stuttering. Moreover, in the UK, the disparity in therapy accessibility leads to lengthy waiting times and frequent lack of support.

Substantial accomplishments to date

To counter these challenges, BeneTalk is committed to improving access and outcomes, with the aim of developing the gold standard in digital stuttering support, which will be available on-demand for everyone, everywhere.

Our success to date includes two mobile apps.

1. BeneTalk: offering continuous support for teenagers and adults:
- 85% of users find it effective.
- Used in 193 countries
- Higher retention rate than the top 10% of health apps in the US,
- A preliminary feasibility study showed that it has the potential to continue to improve people's lives after therapy is completed

2. Penguin: designed for parents and caregivers of pre-school children. It is deployed in several NHS trusts pathways:

To date, we have raised more than £2M from non-dilutive grants and angel investors, enabling us to collaborate with prominent UK-based charities; opinion leaders; universities, and organisations, including the NHS.

We aim to capitalise on this momentum to broaden our market, specifically to target US private practices, clinics, schools and insurance providers.

We are also pursuing an additional £1.4M non-dilutive grant funding to fast-track our mission supported by key charities and universities in the UK.

Our team is a diverse mix of individuals who have experienced stuttering, innovative product designers, skilled engineers, and specialist speech therapists. CEO is a chartered mechanical engineer living with stuttering for 40 years, and CTO has 25 years in software, including TomTom, and McLaren Formula 1.

Monetisation strategy

BeneTalk's SaaS solution has been designed to appeal to patients and providers, and will enable us to generate revenue through subscription fees, institutional partnerships, and in-app purchases. In the long term, we also anticipate additional income from licensing our technology to public health systems.

Our current focus is US sales via a B2B2C model, creating an ecosystem for the family to support their child.

In parallel, we are gathering evidence generation to demonstrate to the NHS (and other public health systems) the health-economic benefits of BeneTalk for reimbursement.

Our technology and proprietary IP are not restricted to stuttering alone. We envision an expansion into diverse speech conditions, allowing us to penetrate a speech therapy market of $17bn by 2031. BeneTalk is uniquely positioned to revolutionise this market by integrating digital therapeutics and AI.

Beyond stuttering and other speech conditions, we have the potential to help EVERYONE find joy in speaking.

Use of proceeds

We are developing SuperPenguin: a goal-oriented mobile app designed to provide families with the knowledge they need to support their child’s well-being effectively. Complementing this, we're creating a web dashboard for therapists to offer personalised treatment plans.

We recently won £640k in non-dilutive funding, which will be supplemented by the funds raised on this campaign.

We aim to use your investment and this non-dilutive funding to help us fuel further growth by allocating the funds for product development, marketing, and sales. Namely:

- Hiring a senior data scientist, software engineer and UX designer

- Hiring a US commercial lead to upgrade our sales infrastructure and capabilities in the US

- Developing US B2B2C distribution partnerships by targeting private practices, clinics, schools and insurance providers

- Launching SuperPenguin in the US in late 2023

- Develop AI personalisation algorithms to support children and families and track their quality of life over time

Head to this URL for BeneTalk app review by HealthCanal: www.healthcanal.com/supplements/benetalk-review

Key Information

Material Debt

The Company has the following outstanding loans:

1. £20,194 of Founders Loans at zero interest. The loan is to be repaid when the company is cashflow positive

2. Loan facility of up to £396,103 from Innovate UK (of which £100,000 has been drawn down). Until February 2027, a payment of interest is accrued equal to 3.7% per annum. From March 2027, interest on the outstanding amount of this loan (and any interest deferred under its terms) accrues at a rate of 7.4% per annum. The loan and any outstanding interest are to be repaid from March 2027 to March 2030

The funds raised as part of this round will not be used to repay these loans.

Outstanding Convertible Loan

The company has an outstanding convertible loan of £40,000 from The Francis Crick Institute Limited, with the following key terms:

Interest rate: 0%

Conversion trigger: a Qualified Financing round of £250,000 or more, or a Sale

Conversion price:
i) on a Qualified Financing, a price per Share being equal to the lowest price per Share paid for Financing Senior Shares by the investors on a Qualified Financing;

ii) on a Share Sale, either:
a) a price per Share being equal to the lowest price per Share paid for Existing Senior Shares; or
b)a price per Share that results in the Lender receiving aggregate cash or non-cash proceeds before tax equal to £40,000 or 5% of the Sale Proceeds whichever is the higher; or
c) on an Asset Sale, a price per Share that results in the Lender having the right to receive, by way of dividend or distribution, aggregate cash or non-cash proceeds before tax equal to £40,000 or 5% of the Sale Proceeds, whichever is the higher;

Share class: most senior class of shares as are issued to investors on a qualified financing

Maturity date: 31 December 2023

Lead Investment

Please note, £99,989.21 of the raised funds reflected in the campaign were received by the company in January 2023. These investments are a part of the same round and are on the same terms as Seedrs investors.

Investor Perks

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If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

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Only shareholders can access this page

If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

Buy shares

Only shareholders can access this page

If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.

Buy shares

Investing involves risks, including loss of capital, illiquidity, lack of dividends and dilution, and should be done only as part of a diversified portfolio. Please read the Risk Warnings before investing. Investments should only be made by investors who understand these risks. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future.

This campaign for BeneTalk has been approved by Seedrs Limited (trading as Republic Europe) ("Republic Europe", "us" or "we"), as of 20 July 2023 as a financial promotion. Republic Europe is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority with firm reference number 550317. In approving this campaign, Republic Europe has concluded that the information, taken as a whole, is "fair, clear and not misleading." This means that for factual statements we have reviewed evidence of their accuracy, and that for aspirational statements we believe they are phrased appropriately in light of their speculative nature. You should note that in the case of factual statements, the evidence we review is provided by the business, and we do not audit it, which means that we may not be able to identify forged or altered evidence. You should further note that in the case of aspirational statements, the nature of the type of businesses presented on the Republic Europe platform is such that they are likely to have high ambitions, and we may approve statements that convey those ambitions even where we do not believe, or we do not have a view on whether it is likely, that they will be fully realised. The pre-money valuation and investment sought in the campaign are those set by the business: they are not reviewed or established by us, and the valuation is not an independent view of what the business is worth. Given the nature and type of businesses presented on the Republic Europe platform, it is possible that the business has very little cash remaining prior to receiving this investment, and the investment sought may be necessary for the business's on-going existence.

Republic Europe does not make investment recommendations to you. No communications from Republic Europe, through this website or any other medium, should be construed as an investment recommendation. Further, nothing on this website shall be considered an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any security to any person in any jurisdiction to whom or in which such offer, solicitation or sale is unlawful. Republic Europe does not provide legal, financial or tax advice of any kind. If you have any questions with respect to legal, financial or tax matters relevant to your interactions with Republic Europe, you should consult a professional adviser.

Tax Relief (SEIS)

This business is eligible for SEIS relief - providing qualifying investors with income tax relief of 50% of their investment and certain other tax reliefs. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future. Click to learn more.

Tax Relief (EIS)

This business is eligible for EIS relief - providing qualifying investors with income tax relief of 30% of their investment and certain other tax reliefs. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and is subject to change in future. Click to learn more.

Valuation (pre-money)

Valuation rounded from £1,635,511

This is the fully-diluted pre-money valuation of the business (i.e. before the new investment comes in and including issued options and other equity interests). In contrast, the post-money valuation is based on inclusion of the new investment in the value.

It is calculated as the pre-money valuation plus the amount of new investment. e.g. If Company A is ascribed a pre-money valuation of £1,200,000 by prospective investors investing £300,000, its post-money valuation is £1,500,000.

The investee business is responsible for setting its own valuation, it has not been prescribed by Seedrs.

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Equity Offered

The equity offered is the percentage of the company’s shares being issued in return for the amount of investment raised.

When the amount raised is less than 100%, the equity offered is based on the target raise. Once the company has raised over 100% it is based on the total raised.

In some scenarios, entrepreneurs may accept additional direct investment after closing their Seedrs campaign. Provided this is within 6 months of the closing and on the same terms, we do not typically offer pre-emption rights on that extra investment (where you have the opportunity to invest again to maintain your percentage shareholding).

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Nominee investment

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Custodian

If you invest in this Campaign, Seedrs will act as Custodian rather than provide our standard nominee service. This is due to the fact that the business is not directly involved in the share sale and Seedrs will not benefit from any rights under a shareholder agreement. As a result, Seedrs will handle administrative tasks as we do normally, but you will not have information or voting rights, updates from the business, preemption on future fundraising, or ongoing support about business trading activity.

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Secondary market

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Direct investment

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Business Involvement

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We are not able to accept Pay by Bank payments for investments into this sector. You can pay for your investment with a card payment, by creating a bank transfer or by using funds in your investment account. Your investment will only be completed once the funds have reached our account.

Drawdowns

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