The Right to a Dignified Life
Over 6,000 Norwegians have major communication challenges because they lack verbal language and only communicate with gestures, sounds and facial expressions. Many of them have no or little cognitive capability for learning to use established communication solutions already existent on the market.
Lifetools has therefore developed the digital communication tool KnowMe, which helps this group to be seen and understood. The core of KnowMe is the filming and interpretation of non-verbal communication such as body language, facial expressions and sounds put into context. The digital solution ensures that important information is not lost during the transition to new life arenas such as between kindergarten and school, or when the child gets new helpers.
The company has received support from the Research Council of Norway to explore using AI tech and machine learning to investigate whether it is possible to automate the recognition and interpretation of body language, facial expressions, and sounds.
Tailored Impact-Linked Investment
We see a great potential in Lifetools, both in terms of its social impact and the company’s ability to achieve a strong and stable financial situation. It is, however, in an early phase, and will need a relatively significant amount of capital to achieve its ambitions.
We have therefore chosen to invest in the company through a FSE Impact Note, a variant of SAFE. This means that the company will receive money now, while we get a future right to subscribe for shares in the company. This is advantageous for the company’s founders because it limits the early dilution of their ownership of the company. It also ensures that the company is sufficiently robust to be able to address our governance requirements and that its impact and financial potential are more clearly confirmed before we invest equity.
Our agreement with the company is unique because the valuation of the company for our future equity investment is linked to its impact; we will have to pay more for shares in the company if it achieves its impact objectives during the agreement period. This fits with our profile as an impact-first investor, i.e., we attach more weight to a company’s social return than its financial return.