Speaklee, from Readler
Every child deserves to find their voice.
Thousands of children across the Netherlands are on waiting lists for speech therapy, which causes months of delay during years that matter most. Readler, a VU-born startup, decided that wasn't acceptable. So they built an AI-powered speech assistant that acts like a teacher, therapist, and patient coach all in one.
How it works
The machine learning algorithm breaks words down into phonemes and gives children real-time, detailed feedback on their pronunciation. This turns something that can feel frustrating into something that actually feels fun. No jargon, no waiting room. Just a child, a screen, and a tool that listens carefully.
Built with purpose
The team isn't just chasing a product, they're chasing a mission. For every app sold, they aim to give one away for free. Their goal is to make sure no child misses out on speech support because of circumstance, postcode, or family income.
From DLAB to real lives
They started with phonetics research at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Winning the DLAB Summer Pitch Event helped turn that research into something real! A prototype was built in collaboration with speech therapists, linguists, and the people who know the challenge best.
"ReadLer participating in the Demonstrator Lab made our project feel real." — Gabriele Mingoli, co-founder
