In a recent interview, Pranav Desai, VOSAP Founder and a passionate advocate for empowering people with disabilities, interviewed the dynamic co-founder of We Hear, Kanishka Patel. His passion for addressing hearing impairments has led to the development of groundbreaking technology that provides affordable alternatives to expensive surgical procedures.
The technology at the heart of their solution is bone conduction technology, which bypasses the physical ear and stimulates the cochlea directly. This innovation can help people with various types of hearing loss, whether it’s due to ear issues, conductive hearing loss, or age-related hearing problems. By creating a digital programmable hearing aid that avoids invasive surgeries, Kanishka and Raj have provided a life-changing alternative to traditional treatments.
On being Asked how Kanishka was inspired to do something in this sector, we learnt that journey began when Kanishka was in college, pursuing a degree in electronics. Kanishka’s educational background in electronics, along with his family’s legacy of educators, provided a solid foundation for their mission. Kanishka’s exposure to bone conduction technology, which doesn’t rely on the ears, sparked the idea for their innovative hearing solution.
In 2017 during college he developed a prototype. He tested on 3-4 kids with hearing impairments in Ahmedabad. Upon using their prototype, the child experienced the sensation of hearing for the first time. This transformational moment became the driving force behind their mission to create a sustainable hearing solution that benefits not only children but also adults. “when we put it there and we saw his reaction, we thought, no, this is something we can, you know, work on and it can be a very big solution.”
Kanishka and Raj have secured 7 patents, with 4 already granted and 1 filed internationally in 23 countries.This patent covers a digitally programmable non-surgical bone conduction hearing aid, positioning their product as the only one of its kind in the market. Their invention has disrupted the hearing aid industry, offering an affordable alternative to expensive surgeries. They also rejected the buyout offer and continued working in this direction
On being Asked by Mr.Pranav how much impact they have made so far and what are their goals in the future he shared “Right now like you know I can happily share that we have 4300 plus kids and adults who are hearing impaired are now, right now using our product and they’re getting really good response with the product and they’re happy. We have users starting from, you know, a period of nine months, onward we have users who have been using with the age of 80- 85 years old.”
Over the past year, they have established 13 distributors across India and expanded into 15 countries globally, including the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and their upcoming ventures in the U.S. and Europe.Through partnerships with CSR organizations and government initiatives, they aim to reach thousands of beneficiaries in the coming years.
Voice of Specially Abled People (VOSAP), provides support by subsidizing their products to enable individuals with hearing impairment. On being asked what they think about their Partnership with Voice of SAP, Kanishka shared the experience.
“We have been very fortunate that no organization like Voice of SAP is there and they have supported us in in no and then a very early stage of our projects.So Voice of SAP has been very much you know, supportive in this journey of ours and we are also aiming to you know now scale it more and more because the issue is really big. We are happy to have a partner like Voice of SAP with us who we can leverage your network, we can leverage your volunteers and we can reach maximum beneficiaries, we can help out maximum people.”
VOSAP Founder offered his wholehearted support to Wehear and shared his long term commitment to collaborate and support, emphasizing the power of partnership in driving this impactful initiative forward.
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Really insightful