Motto-Captura APS: Making sense with mobile technology

According to research conducted by Motto in 2005, an estimated seven per cent of the world’s population inherits dyslexia and a further 30 per cent have reading difficulties.

Many of these people are not computer literate, but, like most people today, they do tend to have mobile phones. Recognising this, Motto developed CapturaTalk, unique software that allows users to take a picture of any written text and, within two seconds, hear it played back to them.

“It can take five to ten minutes to get a result from other methods of scanning,” explains Flemming Ast, Chief Executive Officer of Motto. “So our almost instantaneous process is a huge improvement.”

CapturaTalk can be used by people of all ages, from school children to pensioners. It uses a menu of large, easily understood icons, and has a high quality text-to-speech voice making it ideal for those with hearing and seeing disabilities.

New markets

Having rolled out the software successfully in Denmark and Sweden, Motto was looking to crack the biggest potential market of all – the English speaking world. Recognising that it would be time consuming and costly for a small Danish company to open up in the UK, they decided to partner up with a company that was already established in the UK market.

“We went to UK Trade & Investment and found that we qualified for the Global Partnerships Programme,” says Ast. “They prepared a detailed report of potential business partners for us in the UK. We decided to pursue a relationship with iansyst, a company of 20 years standing which already produces resources for 20,000 dyslexia sufferers in the UK.”

Getting to know each other

UK Trade & Investment made the initial introduction between the two companies. iansyst thought CapturaTalk was great. And, crucially, Motto was impressed with iansyst too.

“It was vital to us that our business partner not only talked the talk, but also walked the walk,” says Ast. “iansyst is totally committed to improving daily life for dyslexia sufferers. Their philosophy matched our own totally.”

But, without UK Trade & Investment this partnership would literally never have happened.

“iansyst told us that they wouldn’t have known about us at all if it wasn’t for UK Trade & Investment’s introduction,” explains Ast.

Looking forward

The next stop for the Motto/ iansyst partnership is America. With a total of 91 million potential English speaking users, and a further 100 million Spanish speakers, the possibilities are endless.

Ast has the following advice for other businesses:

“Get in touch with UK Trade & Investment. The help that they gave us in introducing us into a new market was unique, and the highest quality that I have ever seen.”

The other side of the story

In 2006, iansyst Ltd was seeking out new product innovations, when they received information from UK Trade & Investment about Danish company, Motto, and its CapturaTalk software.

“We recognised the potential of what we felt could be a practical and very helpful solution for our customers,” says Janine King, Head of Sales and Marketing at iansyst. “It absolutely met our product innovation aspirations.”

iansyst had previously worked with partners in the UK, but the UK Trade & Investment initiative provided the critical link to match two businesses that may otherwise never have met.

“Like many small businesses, it is often a challenge for us to find the necessary time to seek out and evaluate new business partners, and source specialist international support,” explains King. “UK Trade & Investment’s development programmes and initiatives have helped us to focus our time and to respond effectively and successful to potential strategic partnerships. We really feel that the opportunities with UK Trade & Investment have only just begun.”

Sector focus:

• The UK is Europe’s leading investment market for software and IT services

• The ICT sector accounted for 19 per cent of all inward investment in 2006/7

• There are more software start-ups in the UK than anywhere else in Europe

• The UK is home to over 100,000 specialist software houses

• The UK controls 20 per cent of the global market for IT security products

The Global Partnerships Programme is a UK Trade & Investment initiative designed to create partnerships between the world’s most innovative technology-led organisations and their UK peers. It can help overseas organisations of any size to find partners, especially if the organisation:

• Is R&D intensive or has an R&D-intensive project

• Is seeking an R&D collaboration with a UK academic or commercial partner

• Is committed to knowledge transfer with a UK organisation

The Global Partnerships Programme does not help companies to find UK agents or distribution partners.