Ai-Media UK is a for-profit social enterprise that provides live captioning in schools and universities to support students learning

Impact objective: Improve the educational engagement and outcomes of young people across the UK

Ai-Media UK is a social business that uses high quality live captioning (Ai-Live) to engage young learners in schools and universities helping them to improve their learning and development. Originally developed in Australia to support people with deafness in mainstream schools and workplaces, the success of Ai-Live has led to it being developed for children and young people with many different needs.

Ai-Media’s Co-founder and CEO, Tony Abrahams, says: “Ai-Live is an adaptable tool that is lifting education outcomes for those with autism, learning difficulties and for whom English is an additional language in schools and universities. Primary school teachers in Birmingham, Dudley and London, are using Ai-Live to analyse and improve their classroom performance.

“We share Nesta’s vision for social investment that builds social capital and delivers a return for investors. With Nesta’s backing, we will be able to broaden access to our innovations and assist more people – as we report social impact and financial targets.”

Dr Jacqui Ashton Smith, from the National Autistic Society says: “The National Autistic Society always strives to be at the forefront of innovation for students and we are really excited about the possibilities offered by captioning for students with an ASD.”

Ai-Media’s potential to grow and have an impact on the educational development of children and young people across the UK attracted Nesta Impact Investments.

Isabel Newman from Nesta says: “Ai-Media UK has a very talented team behind it who are committed to transforming the learning landscape for children and young people with learning difficulties. We are excited by the potential of Ai-Live to reach a wider audience and expand into new areas, such as supporting young people with autism. As schools and universities look to use new technology more effectively to support their students we believe Ai-Media is well placed to play a part in that.”