Talking Hands closes seed financing round

The start-up's previous mentors have now joined as business angels.

Various business angels have joined the start-up Talking Hands in a seed financing round. These include the Managing Director of the Axel Springer Consulting Group Christoph Keese, Bitpanda founder and Managing Director Eric Demuth, Emma-Matratzen founders Dennis Schmoltzi and Manuel Müller as well as Tiana founder and director Ilknur Gur. The business angels had previously supported the company as mentors.

Laura Mohn and Maria Möller founded Talking Hands in Frankfurt am Main in October 2020. The start-up has developed flipbooks that teach children basic vocabulary in sign language. Talking Hands aims to facilitate communication between children with and without disabilities and enable greater inclusion. The product was inspired by Laura Mohn's sister, who has Down's syndrome and only learned to speak late in life. With the funds from the seed financing, Talking Hands now wants to grow its team, offer more products and expand within the EU.

"I met Laura and Maria about a year ago and I am absolutely thrilled and convinced of their work and mission of inclusion in the education system. I am therefore all the more pleased to be able to support them in this," said investor Eric Demuth.

Last October, the founders presented their start-up on "Die Höhle der Löwen" and received orders worth 40,000 euros from individual lions. According to Talking Hands, they received so many orders after the show aired that the flipbooks were sold out within a few hours, although the start-up also came in for some criticism.