On-demand support for people who stutter and their families to improve their quality of life.
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 |
Investment summary
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
Key features
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
Please note that any discounts, rewards and/or offers listed by a company in its campaign are subject to the terms and conditions applied by that company. It is the company’s responsibility to honour such discounts, rewards and/or offers and Seedrs does not take any responsibility for them.
Open an account to get access to the team members of BeneTalk
Already have an account? Log in
To comply with financial regulations, we can only show full campaign details to registered users.
Only shareholders can access this page
If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.
Buy sharesOnly shareholders can access this page
If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.
Buy sharesOnly shareholders can access this page
If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.
Buy sharesOnly shareholders can access this page
If you successfully purchase a share lot of this business, you will be granted access.
Buy shares