WeWalk, a local startup that develops smart walking stick technology for the visually impaired, has received investment from important funds from the UK and Turkiye. The Smart Walking Stick was named the world’s most successful invention by Time magazine.
WeWalk, the inventor of the Smart Walking Stick produced for the visually impaired, received an investment of $2.5 million in the tour, in which Europe’s leading health and social impact-focused capital funds participated.
In addition to the investment received, $2 million of R&D grant financing was obtained from Innovate UK, which was funded by the British Government in cooperation with Imperial College London, one of the world’s leading Technical universities, and RNIB, the UK’s largest Association for the Visually Impaired.
We shared with you in 2020 that WeWalk is the first initiative from Turkiye selected for Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence for Accessibility program.
German national team famous football player Ilkay Gundogan also invested
Nesta Impact Ventures, one of the UK’s leading social impact-focused investment institutions, health fund King’s Health Partners, IT Valley Fund from Turkiye, APY Ventures and Galata Business Angels have become the new investors of WeWalk. Angel investors such as the German National Team and Manchester City’s famous player Ilkay Gundogan have also joined the new supporters of WeWalk through the crowdfunding platform Crowdcube. Vestel Ventures, which has been with WeWalk since the first stage, was also included in this tour. Kursat Ceylan, the co-founder of WeWALK, who is also visually impaired, announced that he will use WeWALK’s investment to further develop and expand its technologies globally.
TIME: The best invention
The smart walking stick developed by WeWalk detects obstacles at the waist and head level with sensors and warns the user. Integrated with the smartphone application, it provides accessible navigation for the visually impaired, and shares public transportation and surrounding information audibly. Moreover, it gains new features day by day by integrating new smart urban solutions and makes life easier for the visually impaired.
Used in 59 countries today, the WeWalk Smart Walking Stick was named one of the best inventions of the year by TIME Magazine. It brought the Gold Award to Turkiye for the first time at the Edison Awards given on behalf of Thomas Edison. There were news in more than 30 languages in 300 world-famous sources such as CNN, BBC, Forbes and Bloomberg. There are 280 thousand in Turkiye and 253 million visually impaired individuals in the world.
Source: Egirisim / Translated by Irem Yildiz