Overview

TravellingWave develops software, using speech recognition technology, for entering text into mobile devices. The technology dubbed "Predictive Speech-to-Text" is a novel framework that combines the elegance of traditional predictive text input, simultaneously with speech recognition. The result is the World's first next generation multimodal mobile user experience.

Team

Ashwin Rao (Founder, CEO) has held research positions at AT&T Bell-Labs (Murray Hill, NJ), Hunter College (New York, NY), Dragon Systems (Newton, MA), and Conversay (Redmond, WA). He has published over 25 papers (mostly in speech and signal processing), holds several patents, is a reviewer for the IEEE and the Journal of Franklin Institute, is a member of the IEEE and the Acoustical Society of America, and has presented invited lectures at several venues including IBM Watson Research Center, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Washington-Seattle. Currently, he oversees research and overall investment and business planning for TravellingWave. Dr. Rao received his BE from the University of Bombay and his MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rhode Island jointly working with the Neuroscience Department of Brown University, Rhode Island.

Greg Aronov (CoFounder, VP Product Development) has held prior positions at Conversay (Redmond, WA), Microsoft (Redmond), Spacelabs (Redmond) in software development, specializing in speech recognition. He has a BS in Applied and Computational Mathematical Sciences and an MBA, both from the University of Washington-Seattle. Greg currently specializes in speech algorithm development and optimization, and additionally interfaces product with business development and market opportunities.

Marat Garafutdinov (CoFounder, VP Engineering) has held prior positions at Conversay (Redmond, WA), Microsoft (Redmond, WA), and Intrinsyc (Bellevue WA) in software development with emphasis on speech recognition. He studied Applied and Computational Mathematical Sciences at the University of Washington-Seattle. Marat currently specializes in multimodal system architecture design and development, and generally oversees all aspects of technology and engineering.

Terry Niehaus (CFO) has over 30 years experience in finance and operations. He has held positions with Crane (Controller), Conversay (CFO), Spencer Technologies (CEO), and other positions including the accounting firm of Knight, Vale and Gregory; AIM Aviation; and Portac Inc (owned by Mitsui & Co). Terry is a CPA, holds a BBA from University of Cincinnati and oversees finance of TravellingWave.

Todd Achilles (Product Innovator) has been in the Wireless industry for over 15 years, the last five focused on providing new ways for mobile users to communicate. As an Executive Director for T-Mobile USA, he managed sales, engineering, and product development teams; managing a $2B annual portfolio of mobile phones, working closely with all the major global handset suppliers. Subsequently, as the general manager for HTC Americas, he led the sales, marketing, and product efforts for the world leader in smartphones and connected personal digital assistants. Currently, he serves as a managing director for Affinity Mobile, a provider of mobile financial services to the world’s underbanked. Todd has supported TravellingWave since its inception and continues to assist in product and marketing; he is a firm believer in the potential of VoicePredict to change how people interact with their devices.

Sponsors



TravellingWave is backed by highly distinguished Angels in Seattle: Jim Judson (Partner DWT LLP; former associations with McCaw Cellular, Nextel International, China Unicom), Bill Miller (formerly with OVP Venture Partners and Microsoft), Geoff Entress (a Principal with Madrona Venture Group), and Colin Wong (formerly with Google). In addition to investing in the company's series-A round, their background and industry experience continue to hone TravellingWave's business models and go-to-market strategies.

Supporting Organization

TravellingWave has been supported by the prestigious United States Federal Agency, the National Science Foundation, under the Small Business Investigation Research program. The company has received three grants till date (SBIR Phase-I, Phase-IB, Phase-II Awards) and its SBIR Phase-II grant is currently active until 2009.

Story behind the TravellingWave Name

In 1962, Georg von Békésy received the Nobel Prize for discovering patterns of mechanical motion in the inner ear called the "travelling wave". The Travelling Wave is fundamental to the human auditory system's ability to resolve frequency. It is known that Sound travels down the ear canal to the cochlea, generates ripples in the form of a travelling wave on the basilar membrane, and subsequently results in neural firings that are transmitted to the Brain. The mystery: What does the Travellingwave do? How do stimulli get represented in the auditory nerve fiber? How does the Brain process and interpret complex sounds?