Hello 2020! — Babbly

December 31st marks Babbly’s one year anniversary as a company. We were incorporated as Village Technologies on this day in 2018 and looking back, we’ve come a long way. It almost feels surreal.

Here is a quick review:

January: Hello world!

Getting accepted at NEXT Canada’s program (NEXT AI) stream and developing the first ML model (adult vs. baby sound).

March: First Pivot

Pivoting from being a HW company (smart baby monitor) to focus on the software and developing the AI.

May: First Demo

We gave the first demo of Babbly’s technology at Collision Conference & NEXT Canada’s demo day. It was a simple, yet effective demonstration of how a baby’s voice can get differentiated from an adult and simple classes such as crying could be identified.

June: Ontario Brain Institute Award & Funding

We were selected as a brain-tech venture to win Ontario Brain Institute’s award that came with funding and mentorship from its associates. OBI has opened many doors for us and we’re very thankful for that.

August: Winning RBC’s People’s choice award at NEXT Canada’s venture day

We were humbled to be the recipient of the People’s Choice Award at Next Canada’s Venture day and to celebrate it with NEXT’s alumni and community.

September: Funding from NEXT Canada

We were selected as one of three ventures by NEXT Canada to receive the full funding. We’re very thankful to the NEXT community for supporting us all the way. We wouldn’t have been here without your help.

October: Babbly Beta Launch at Baby Show

We launched our beta program at the Babyshow in Toronto. It was a two-day IRL experience interacting with new and expecting parents.

Winning Elevate Tech Conference’s Best Pitch

It was a surreal experience to be on the stage at Toronto’s Soy Center and to tell the story of the company to more than a thousand people in the audience.

December: One thousand sign-ups!

We reached 1000 beta sign-ups and counting. This was partially achieved due to the support of our advisors (Thanks Dr. Dina Kulik!) and partners (Gigglly Panda Baby Spa) that helped share the news as our social media campaign to get the word out there.

Getting to know China as our second market

We were invited to showcase Babbly’s technology in Hong Kong’s Startup Summit this year. As part of the trip we met a few companies and investors that are active in the voice and education space and we believe this will be a great launch pad for our growth in Asia. Babbly’s technology is language agnostic and as a result, we believe we can launch in China as our second market after North America.

And as we wrap the final hours of 2019, here’s what to look out for in 2020:

1- Launching Babbly in app store (iOS & Android)

We’re on our way to publically launch Babbly in Q.2 2020. The beta tests truly helped us to understand the user experience a lot better and guided us to develop new features that will help parents get more out of the final solution.

2- Longitudinal pilots in N.A & Asia

We’ll run pilot studies in partnership with academia and childcare centers in 2020 to measure the impact Babbly will make in a baby’s speech development when strategies and activities are followed.

3- New partnerships

Our business model relies on channel partners and we’re looking to build new partnerships with other brands and companies that can see the value in having access to Babbly’s personalized assessment for a baby’s development.

Thank you for all your support so far. 2019 was the year of growth and gratitude for us and we believe that’s not going to change next year.

From our family to yours. Happy new year!