Healthtech startup Noala is on a mission to make speech and language therapy more accessible, giving generations the support they need to develop communications skills. The UK-based team has just raised €4 million to support the development of its impact-driven platform.
Communication is a crucial component of life. Being able to express oneself clearly and with confidence is not only a desired skill in the professional world, but it’s also an essential part of socialization and community. It’s a part of fueling relationships and thriving personally and professionally.
However, it’s reported that an estimated 20% of people will experience some sort of communication difficulty during their life. Currency in the UK, 2 students in every class of 30 have a Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and 81% with emotional and behavioural disorders have unidentified communication needs.
It’s something that can drastically impact a person’s quality of life and a child’s development. Speech and Language Professionals (SLPs) are on hand to help address this challenge, but, there currently exists a range of barriers to accessing treatment – both online and offline.
Aiming to address this, and empower more people with professional help by making quality speech and language therapy accessible to all is startup Noala. And they’ve just secured fresh capital to make the vision a reality.
Funding details
The €4 million seed round was led by LocalGlobe. The round was oversubscribed and include participation from Cocoa Ventures, and angels Nicholas Brusson (BlaBlaCar), Josefin Landgard (Kry), Adrien Nussenbaum (Mirakl), Xavier Louis (Peak), among others.
To date, Noala has grown by word of mouth and recommendations made by the platform’s growing and engaged community of families and professionals. The seed funding will be used to continue developing Noala’s leading digital tools by growing the product and clinical teams in a bid to make Noala the go-to platform for everyone involved in speech and language services.
Making therapy more accessible
Founded by Emilie Spire in 2021, Noala was built based on her first-hand experience with communication disorders after her niece Ambre suffered from a stroke just before she was born. Nola empowers a decentralized fleet of SLPs to deliver clinically-backed digital coaching programs that support families to enhance their children’s communication skills, removing the barriers that exist when trying to access these vital services.
The platform gives families access to support, advice and personalized practical exercises faster – in days rather than months – from the comfort of their homes.
Impact-driven innovation
Communication is a fundamental skill for personal development and it has a monumental impact on one’s quality of life.
It’s reported that children with difficulties in speaking and listening are less likely to pass their school exams and vocabulary difficulties at age five are significantly associated with poor literacy, mental health and employment outcomes at age 34. By adulthood, 88% of long-term unemployed young men have been found to have Speech and Learning Communication Needs (SLCN).
These stats clearly show that something needs to change for the generations to come.
Language disorders can also develop throughout one’s life, as we age or as a result of medical conditions such as strokes, Parkinson’s disease, muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy and more. The situation is so widespread that in the US, alone, more people have communication difficulties (46m) than have diabetes (34m) according to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, the impact of which is substantial.
The problem has only been getting worse. And wider contextual problems need to be considered as well. Healthcare systems are under severe pressure across the world, exacerbated by the pandemic as well as cuts across health and social care, and an increasing shortage of speech and language professionals, it’s worryingly clear the world is facing a communication crisis.
Emilie Spire said: “Speech and language professionals do an amazing and vital job helping both children and adults improve their communication skills, unlock new opportunities and find their voice so that they can thrive. Yet they’re attempting to do so in the face of increasing demand, cuts and poor resources. A lack of resources that are additionally letting down patients, their families, schools, and workforces across the country and beyond. At Noala, we’re building the go-to platform to improve one’s communication skills, empowering a decentralised fleet of Speech and Language Professionals to deliver clinically-backed digital coaching programs.”
The platform takes a multistage approach to the therapy journey. It combines the power of Noala’s digital tools with the real-world expertise of its clinical team to help both sides – families and SLPs – achieve the best quality outcome for themselves as individuals, but also for the wider community.
For patients and their families, Noala is a coaching platform that brings benefits as a standalone treatment option, or it can be used while patients are on waiting lists, and alongside existing government or school-led treatment plans. Each six-week program is curated and managed by Noala’s in-house clinical team. Users are assigned dedicated Noala SLPs throughout their time on the platform and these SLPs review each patient’s progress to offer clinical feedback and tailor the program to individual needs and development.
Kate, Noala user from Essex, said: “It was great that we were able to choose a convenient time for the appointment and do it at home in an environment where my son is comfortable.”
For SLPs, the Noala platform can be used by any professional practising across the UK and US to onboard and manage their existing caseload. Noala not only includes all the digital resources they need to run their practice built in a way that complements and supports their current workflows, including integrated and interactive video call tools, a session plan builder, an invoice generator and clinical notes templates, but it offers them an evolving library of clinically reviewed exercises. This includes access to free online sessions with fellow professionals that count towards their Continual Professional Development targets.
By helping SLPs work more efficiently, with fewer admin burdens, they are less likely to experience burnout or become disillusioned. Data shows that 10% of SLPs are experiencing burnout and a recent survey of 1,000 healthcare professionals showed that 28% had quit a job because of burnout.
The platform is also more affordable than existing services, reportedly costing a third of the incumbent private services on average. Further, it makes accessing this vital therapy much faster – providing care in days rather than months or even years.
Now, the team plans to grow and positively impact more lives across the world.
Julia Hawkins, General Partner at LocalGlobe, said: “Emilie and her team at Noala are on a mission to make speech and language therapy mainstream. Leveraging their digital platform, they aim to reduce the friction usually associated with accessing speech and language therapy treatment. As we’ve seen in other pillars of the health sector in the wake of Covid, teletherapy presents a significant opportunity to improve access but only when it’s built with inclusion in mind, and only when it’s backed with clinical authority. Noala has encapsulated this with its platform-led approach and Emilie’s inspiring motivation.”
