French Startup Speachme Launches U.S. Operations in Austin

Speachme, a two year old educational technology company, announced Tuesday the launch of its U.S. operations, based in Austin.

The French company makes a peer-to-peer knowledge transfer platform used by global brands such as Tesla, Airbus, PwC, Nissan and Coca-Cola. It was founded in 2012 and has 41 employees.

The company is also hiring 10 employees in Austin to fill several position in the next six months and it is moving two employees from San Francisco. It also announced it received $2.2 million in funding for its U.S. expansion led by Alven Capital Partners, based in Paris.

The company set up its offices at WeWork on Congress with four employees. But it will be moving to the new WeWork location at the Domain to get a bigger office. Speachme set up offices at WeWork on Congress and will be moving to WeWork at the Domain to get a bigger office.

“speachme is a total departure from traditional online training programs and learning management systems. We put the user in the driver’s seat of content creation, and our platform allows workers – on the shop floor or in the office – to capture and share technical skills and physical gestures in a completely innovative way,” speachme Chief Executive Officer Najette Fellache, said in a news release. “The innovation and unique needs of the manufacturing and industrial business sectors are the primary driver for the expansion of our operations. And basing the company in Austin is a strategic move – the city has long been a center of innovation and often breaks with convention. We share this DNA and look forward to contributing to the thriving local business community.”

The company is targeting customers in the automotive and airline industries, food service, and manufacturing. It’s aimed at large workplaces of 10,000 or more employees.

“The Center for Creative Leadership found that 70 percent of workplace learning comes from real, on-the-job experiences. Compare that to only about 10 percent coming from formal, structured training programs. This finding is the basis for our innovative model for skills-based learning and knowledge transfer,” Kader Garnier Aw, Chief Operating Officer of speachme said in a news release. “At speachme, we believe that employees should be empowered to train and learn from each other, on-demand and in the moment, versus relying solely on classroom-style or basic slideshow learning methods.”

Speachme’s platform can be used on any device and uses what the company calls “knowledge capsules.” Those training programs can be created by managers or workers. They contain interactive visual content. The speachme platform provides the tools for employees to record audio, video, audio with slides, screencast and enables you to mix multiple types of media to create compelling, interactive content. Speachme also provides data and analytics and dashboard to monitor how effective the content is.

The platform works best for manufacturing companies that need to train employees but not all at the same time for specific tasks.

“The skills transfer between workers relies on a keen understanding of important technical procedures,” Garnier Aw said in a news release. “The physical gestures that perform these procedures are not easily captured in standard training tools or manuals. speachme’s ‘trainer’s-eye’ point of view allows the trainee to virtually and visually shadow the trainer through every step of the procedure. This approach, combined with our multi-media interface, is unlike any other solution available.”