Janhavi Joshi & Nupura Kirloskar: The right vibes

BleeTech Innovations has built India's first wearable aid for the hearing impaired

Last Updated: Feb 08, 2018, 10:37 IST1 min

Janhavi Joshi (left) and Nupura KirloskarImage: Aditi Tailang for Forbes India Location Courtesy: Shizusan Shophouse & Bar, High Street Phoenix Styling: Eshaa Amiin & Team Wardrobe Courtesy: Nupura: Dress - Mango Overcoat - Mango Heels - Charles And Keith Jewellery - Edesigns Janhavi: Suit & Shirt - Mango Shoes- Steve Madden Janhavi Joshi | 25Nupura Kirloskar | 25Co-founders, BleeTech InnovationsThe prelude to Janhavi Joshi’s and Nupura Kirloskar’s social entrepreneurial journey came in 2014. As students of industrial design at Pune’s MIT Institute of Design then, they had developed the prototype of a wearable product that helped hearing-impaired dancers feel music through vibrations.

Buoyed by the positive response, in 2015, they founded BleeTech Innovations, which now manufactures what it claims is India’s first wearable—a watch branded BleeWatch—for the hearing impaired. “Hearing aids could be stigma for some, but not a wearable,” says Kirloskar.

BleeWatch can record sounds like a doorbell, fire alarm, a baby’s cry, a pressure cooker whistle or a dog’s bark into a connected app. This is notified to the wearer with unique vibration patterns, colours and icons. The watch can also send a help signal to five emergency numbers.

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A basic version, priced around ₹2,500, and a smartwatch version priced at ₹5,000-7,000 is set for commercial launch. The pilot form was distributed through the charity EnAble India, Red Cross School for the Deaf and Yuva Association of the Deaf.

BleeTech’s investors are Social Alpha and IIT-Bombay it has also received an R&D grant from Nasscom. “We were looking for innovators who could serve the bottom of the pyramid… and BleeTech fitted the bill,” says Dhruv Pandey, part of the portfolio and innovation division at Social Alpha.

BleeTech also runs AskBlee a platform that provides video content in Indian sign language, and Blee TV, an entertainment and education platform for the hearing impaired.

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First Published: Feb 08, 2018, 10:37

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Salil Panchal