ELTE-based startup The Speaking Collar System won in the early stage category of the second edition of CHARM-DEN with their non-invasive hearing aid for senior dogs.  

On 21 October CHARM-EU organised its second pitching event CHARM-DEN, aiming to recognise exceptional entrepreneurial projects and provide an opportunity to network with investors and industry experts. Following the success of GardenAI in the first edition of CHARM-DEN, this is the second time that an ELTE team wins in the early stage startup category.

Founded by Kinga G. Tóth and Gábor Kusper at ELTE, the device of The Speaking Collar System restores communication between pets and their owners by playing the owner’s voice, adjusted to a frequency the dog can still hear, through a smart collar via an app on the owner’s phone. The team’s approach combines tech innovation with a clear market strategy and won praise for addressing a growing need in the pet health sector and for the quality of their pitch.

“The Speaking Collar System addresses a major, unsolved problem in the common hearing loss of senior dogs that is not only detrimental to the wellbeing of the dogs and the sense of safety for humans, but undermines the magic bond between pets and owners,” said co-founder Kinga Tóth. “Our solution offers an affordable pathway to restoring the voice-enhanced bond. In addition, the Speaking Collar System is a promising technology that enables non-speaking deaf individuals to finally have assistance dogs, opening up unprecedented possibilities for communication and shared adventures.”  

CHARM-EU is a CHallenge-driven Accessible Research-based Mobile European University alliance uniting nine higher education institutions, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme. CHARM-EU partner universities work together to design and create a new university model, fostering connections with extra-academic stakeholders from business and society to collaboratively address the challenges of the 21st century.