Audioweb wins Imperial College Business School's competition with a business plan to make the internet more accessible for the blind

Making the internet more accessible for blind and visually impaired people is the focus of a business plan that has won a competition at Imperial College Business School.

The winning team, Audioweb, was brought together through the Business School’s Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Design (IED) programme, and includes MBA students Sumeet Singh, Elizabeth Benjamin and Akshay Jha. The team has created a software package that allows people to access audio versions of websites, making it possible for anyone to listen to and navigate around large amounts of content online. This includes people who are blind and visually impaired, those with lower literacy levels and people who wish to surf the internet and/or check emails when they are away from their desks.

“The software recreates graphic design in spoken audio,” MBA student Akshay Jha explained. “For example, by using a male voice for all headings and a female for subheadings, we start bringing structure back into the content. You can then take this further by using rich and varied sound effects, music and other audio cues. This makes the audio experience as rich and immersive as the visual experience.”

Audioweb’s focus on delivering a plan with social value is also reflected in other projects, including runners-up AnanasAnam, whose idea is to create a natural and sustainable substitute for leather. “We are seeing more and more business plans that are concerned with having a significant social impact rather than focusing purely on the commercial benefits,” said Professor Bart Clarysse, Chair in Entrepreneurship at Imperial College Business School. “Students will often focus on services and products that will benefit their countries of origin. This reflects the global community we have here at Imperial College Business School.

“Unlike other Business Schools that may run a more ‘Dragon’s Den’ style of competition that largely focuses on commercial potential, our winners are selected on overall potential. Teams are guided through the process and are working towards launching a real business,” he said.

With a £10,000 prize for the winners to invest in their business, the annual competition takes teams on a five month journey in developing their ideas with the support of coaches before the final pitch. A panel of investors judge the final plan. Indeed, Audioweb cite the coaching they would receive as part of the process and the feedback that they would get from the judges as their main reason for entering the competition. “Our product is a revolutionary and unique product, so we did not have an existing business model for the technology,” said Akshay,  “By having the chance to enter the competition we could test the model we had designed and see if it would stand up to scrutiny by our coaches and the judges.”

Following their success in the competition, the team has received offers of investment and positive feedback at the Mayor of London’s Olympics Technology Exhibition. They are hoping to release their first product, an app available from the Android store, in the next couple of months, followed by an app for Amazon.

Coming a close second in the overall competition but winning a £2,000 prize for the sustainability of their plan, the AnanasAnam team has developed a natural alternative to leather from the waste leaves of the pineapple harvest. “There are huge problems associated with the production of leather,” said team member and MBA student Eric Braune. “In particular, the damage done to the environment through chemical treatments, water usage and cruelty to animals.

“Our alternative, Piñatex, offers a compelling substitute as it is natural, sustainable, environmentally friendly, and more affordable than leather. It also has the potential to open up employment for farmers and local communities, and could create business opportunities in the Philippines and elsewhere.”

Despite missing out on the top prize, the team believe that they have learnt some important lessons from the experience. “Taking part in the competition was a real challenge, since there were other great ideas and teams competing with us,” said Eric, “But the preparation process and coaching sessions allowed us to improve our presentation and we gained a lot of important insights that we can take forward. The positive feedback we received, together with the excitement that AnanasAnam created, has certainly given us the boost that we needed.”

The team currently has two big companies in the textile and shoe industries testing out their prototype.

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More information about the competition is available from: //www3.imperial.ac.uk/entrepreneurship/services/competition