NAME OF ORGANISATION: Bristol Braille Technology CIC
LOCATION: Bristol
YEAR FOUNDED: 2011
ABOUT: Bristol Braille design and manufacture specialist braille equipment to achieve their mission of helping blind and partially sighted people to gain literacy, employment and independence.
INVESTMENT PURPOSE: The purpose of the investment from the South West SITR Fund into Bristol Braille was to contribute to working capital in order to finalise product testing and to support early manufacturing and distribution of the Canute 360.
INVESTMENT AMOUNT: £200,000
DATE OF INVESTMENT: November 2018
SOURCE OF INVESTMENT: South West SITR Fund
IMPACT: Education & Learning; Health, Wellbeing & Social Care
ABOUT: Bristol Braille design and manufacture specialist braille equipment to achieve their mission of helping blind and partially sighted people to gain literacy, employment and independence. Braille literacy is falling into the decline, largely due to previously existing braille technology being behind the times. Bristol Braille have spent the last 12 years developing the Canute 360 - a piece of up-to-date braille technology that allows users to read multiline refreshable braille as well as music, maths, tables, lists and tactile charts. The Canute 360 can even be specially adjusted to enable users to switch between more than one language translation on the same page.
The main aims when designing the Canute 360 were to make braille more affordable and to create braille technology that allows users to read more than just a few lines at once. The Canute, designed to serve as a Kindle for blind people, uses digital BRF files, greatly reducing the amount pages that would have to be embossed and distributed, allowing for affordable, up-to-date access to content.
As well as designing and manufacturing the Canute, Bristol Braille also offer customer support and troubleshooting, and in cases where organisations have their own support teams, they offer troubleshoot training to these support teams.
Purpose of investment: The purpose of the investment from the South West SITR Fund into Bristol Braille was to contribute to working capital in order to finalise product testing and to support early manufacturing and distribution of the Canute 360. Currently 89 blind or partially sighted people are using a Canute in their daily lives. The Canute enables people to pursue ambitious routes in their education or career and allows for more independence. This is vital since only ¼ blind people are in employment, so by making text, diagrams and graphs accessible to people who are blind and partially sighted, Bristol Braille is increasing representation and career opportunities.
Ed Rogers, Managing Director at BBT: “Everyone in the Bristol Braille team are hugely grateful to Resonance for backing Canute. This is a device designed with, by and for Braille readers the world over. We look forward to seeing it being used to expand the range of opportunities available to Braille readers, and blind people generally, as a direct result of Resonance’s investment.”
Bristol Braille: “Resonance has been a consistently supportive investor, attending our board meetings every month, reviewing business plans, proposing possible routes when the business is in difficulty, and being lenient with the terms of the loan during the pandemic.”
Resonance Limited is a company registered in England and Wales no. 04418625
Resonance Impact Investment Limited, a subsidiary of Resonance Limited, is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Firm number 588462.
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