Back to school becomes better for disabled students

A highly innovative company discover a new route to funding vital staff through Swoop

The challenge

Note Taking Express, part of Habitat Learn, began life as a directional microphone designed to help disabled and dyslexic students record lectures. Over the years, the company has grown and shifted to become a complete note-taking service available through institutional clients.

A highly innovative company, the business has completed four successful applications for Innovate UK grants within a year and there is a perennial challenge to raise funds to progress the development of software that uses AI and machine learning to extract useful information from spoken speech.

The company’s latest challenge, enhancing a video conferencing platform to include natural language processing for closed captioning and an automated interface for translation, required the addition of developers to the existing team.

The solution

Through Swoop, the company was able to identify and successfully apply for a loan of £180,000 with ArchOver.

The loan was awarded on the outcome of a grant application and successful completion of due diligence, which demonstrated the strong business case for the project.

The results

Securing the loan has enabled Note Taking Express to employ three new developers, bringing their development team up to 20 staff.

The company is on track to deliver the improved platform in time for the beginning of term in September, enhancing the education experience for students across a range of disabilities.

Client testimonial

“I was impressed by their level of due diligence, looking at the financials and stress testing our business case. It was good for us as a business to go through this process. Swoop guided us through the process in a highly professional manner, introducing us to a source of funding we had not considered before and ensured that we had a successful outcome for our application.”