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your business without language barriers
translation + transcription + voice recognition
for businesses operating in African & Asian languages
Home
your business without language barriers
translation + transcription + voice recognition
for businesses operating in African & Asian languages
About
about us:
We provide translation, transcription, and voice recognition services for businesses that need localized content for Africa and Asia. We specialize in preparing voice and text data for machine learning applications, through specialized and scalable parsing and labelling techniques that leverage distributed teams of language experts. we design machine learning models in-house and also work in close partnership with leaders in voice-recognition for African and Asian languages.
our story:
grant, Uliza's ceo and co-founder, began thinking about how to make phones better information portals for people who speak local languages while working in Sierra Leone. phones are everywhere, but literacy in english is not. This idea eventually formed Uliza when he met Maity and Janeth at Tufts university.
About
about us:
We provide translation, transcription, and voice recognition services for businesses that need localized content for Africa and Asia. We specialize in preparing voice and text data for machine learning applications, through specialized and scalable parsing and labelling techniques that leverage distributed teams of language experts. we design machine learning models in-house and also work in close partnership with leaders in voice-recognition for African and Asian languages.
our story:
grant, Uliza's ceo and co-founder, began thinking about how to make phones better information portals for people who speak local languages while working in Sierra Leone. phones are everywhere, but literacy in english is not. This idea eventually formed Uliza when he met Maity and Janeth at Tufts university.
Clients and Partners
Clients and Partners
who we work with
Languages
Languages
languages
we cover 87 different languages in 100+ dialects, and counting!
Bangladesh
Bengali / Bangla
Central African Republic
Bambari
France
French (France)
Ivory Coast
Abron
Anyin / Agny
Attié
Baoulé
Dan / Yacouba
French (Ivory Coast)
Jula
Kulango
Netherlands
Dutch
Rwanda
Kinyarwanda
Spain
Spanish (Spain)
United States of America
English (US)
Benin
Aja
Bariba
Biali
Dendi
Fon
French (Benin)
Fulfulde Borgu
Gun
Hausa (Benin)
Yoruba (Benin)
China
Mandarin
Germany
German
Kenya
Dholuo
Gikuyu
Kamba
Kiswahili (Kenya)
Luhya
Sheng
Nigeria
Fulfulde Nigerian
Fulfulde Sokoto
Hausa (Nigeria)
Ibibio
Igbo
Pidgin (Nigerian)
Tiv
Yoruba (Nigeria)
Senegal
French (Senegal)
Portuguese (Senegal)
Wolof
Tanzania
Kiswahili (Tanzania)
Zimbabwe
Shona
Brazil
Portuguese (Brazil)
Democratic Republic of Congo
Lingala
Ghana
Akan / Akwapim
Akan / Fante
Akan / Twi
Dagbani
Dangme
Éwé
Ga
Nzema
Pidgin (Ghanaian)
Lesotho
Sesotho (Lesotho)
Peru
Spanish (Peruvian)
Somalia
Somali
Uganda
Acoli
Ateso
Chiga / Rukiga
Kiswahili (Uganda)
lLangi
Luganda / Ganda
Masaaba
Rufimbira
Runyankore
Runyoro
Rutooro
Soga
Cameroon
Bulu
Cebaara
Ewondo
French (Cameroon)
Fulfulde Adamawa
Mina
Oku
Pidgin (Cameroon)
Eswatini
SiSwati (Eswatini)
India
Hindi
Marathi
Punjabi
Telugu
Malawi
Chichewa
Portugal
Portuguese (Portugal)
South Africa
Afrikaans
English (South Africa)
isiXhosa
isiZulu
Khelobedu
Sepedi
Sesotho (South Africa)
Setswana
SiSwati (South Africa)
United Kingdom
English (British)
Team
Team
team uliza
we bring years of experience in behavioral economics, finance, software development, machine learning, and problem solving in the field.
grant bridgman
chief executive officer
Grant has a background in applying technologies for development, economics, and startups in Africa. Grant began thinking about how to make phones better information portals for people who speak local languages when he was in Sierra Leone working with MIT. This idea became Uliza when he met Maity and Janeth. Grant is based in Cape Town.
abhishek maity
chief financial officer
Maity has a background in mathematics and finance. He has worked as a management consultant in the United States, and has experience as an economics teacher in India and in startups in Lebanon and the United States. Maity is a scrupulous data wizard. He is based out of Washington, D.C.
janeth jepkogei
chief technology officer
Janeth is a computer scientist specializing in natural language processing and has worked as a technology analyst for Deutsche Bank. A native Kiswahili speaker, Janeth is based out of Raleigh, NC.
nicholas brown
developer
Nicholas is a tenacious developer with the ideal mindset for a young tech-startup. He has an undergraduate degree in biochemistry and graduate degree in public health, and he is an impressive self-taught software developer, focussing on web-development. He is based in Washington, D.C.
christine vorster
project manager
Christine is an organized manager who never wants to stop learning new languages. She has an undergraduate degree in Psychology, Sociology and French literature, and her Honours degree in French language & literature specializing in Francophone Translation. She loves to create opportunities for people to learn new skills and grow.
joschka opitz
uliza analyst
Joschka has a background in International relations, Philosophy and Economics and has learnt through his time in the military to enjoy any and every challenge. He particularly enjoy’s optimising methods to complete difficult and time consuming tasks and is always interested in learning new skills from those around him.
our advisers:
lisa braden-harder | Harvard University; Appen Linguistic Data, founding CEO
johan wikman | Appen Linguistic Data, CTO
robert on | UC Berkeley; Google
janet cahn | AT&T, Senior Voice User Interface Designer; MIT Media Lab
News
News
uliza news & updates
2019
august
Completed 60 hours of transcription in each Sesotho and isiZulu for SAIGEN
Another addition to the team! Welcome to Joschka, our dedicated Uliza analyst
july
20 languages reached in Ayoba Translations for MTN!
june
Started work with SimfyAfrica, translating their MusicTime App into both French and Portuguese
march
Excited to be working with MTN on their new Ayoba app! We’re extending the app into an ambitious number of Africa’s languages!
Noteworthy project with SAIGEN underway: we are helping them develop new voice rec. products for isiZulu, Sesotho, and Afrikaans!
Our team is growing! Welcome to Christine, our excellent linguist and project manager
january
Welcome to Tosin, our machine learning intern from MIT.
Uliza featured in an article by the Solution Space at the UCT Graduate School of Business
2018
december
We’ve transcribed 130 hours of Hindi audio for Mozilla and Gram Vaani. That’s 1 million words!
We’ve contacted 10,000 workers in our work with &Wider. Asking them about their working conditions in their local language via automated phone call
october
Started work with SAIGEN. Looking forward to seeing what voice recognition tools we can build together on the African continent
august
Started work with the Mozilla Foundation and Gram Vaani. Excited to build Hindi speech recognition tools!
We completed answering over 2,500 local language internet search questions for people in Dharavi, Mumbai
june
Welcome to Nicholas! Our new Developer
Welcome to our interns from California! Julia (USC) and Casey (UCLA)
april
We were one of 9 startups selected to join the 3-month Venture Incubation Program hosted at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business's MTN Solution Space
march
We were selected from 230 applicants to participate in a 5-day design sprint at the MTN Solution Space at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business
january
We launched a partnership with &Wider
We're preparing to pilot a project with Swansea University in India
We presented at the Mercy Corps Innovation Market Place in Nairobi
2017
december
Welcome Stephen! Our new business development manager
november
We secured our first external seed investment
september
We transcribed 21 audio hours of Kiswahili in a week!
Welcome Ashir! Our first Machine Leaning Developer
june
We launched an IVR platform for Refunite in Kenya and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
We launched an IVR platform for Sauti Africa in Kenya
may
We began collaboration with The Busara Center for Behavorial Economics in Ghana
april
Uliza NYC investors roadshow