Social Venture Fund II (UK)

Communicating and interacting with one another enriches our lives. Without the ability to do so we are denied the chance to share knowledge and ideas, education and a place in society. “Communication for everyone” is Insane Logic’s mission. This company helps children, young people and adults who have speech, language or communication needs. Based in the UK and supported by Social Venture Fund II (one of the EIF-backed social impact funds), they believe everyone has the right to communication. They have created a language development programme – MyChoicePad – that brings together proven speech and language therapy techniques and market leading technology to deliver language development via tablet computers. Having worked for many years with a charity dedicated to a language development programme, Zoe Peden and Andrew Jackman, the company’s founders, were looking for an easy, simple, accessible and inexpensive way to provide children, parents and teachers with the speech and communication improvement support they needed. They designed an innovative and cheap symbol and gesture-based communication app but struggled to find the right technology for it. It all came together in 2010 with the launch of the first tablet computer. It was the perfect and most cost-effective solution and the app was released in May 2011. They spent the first two years developing the company in a back bedroom and in September 2013 moved into their own offices. Since then, Insane Logic has gone from strength to strength. The award-winning MyChoicePad has already helped seven-year old Lucy, who has speech delay, to work on her sign language skills and increase her level of communication so she can learn to speak words and catch up with her peers. It also gave Richard, a teenager with Downs Syndrome, the ability to improve his vocabulary and Charmaine, who has a chromosome disorder that affects her ability to understand and communicate, a sense of control so that she can express what she wants and needs.

Company: Insane Logic, London, UK
Type of business: mobile solutions helping people with learning and/or speech impairments to communicate
EU-supported investment through Social Venture Fund II

For further information about EIF intermediaries in the UK, please refer to:
http://www.eif.org/what_we_do/where/gb