Thibault Duchemin

Thibault Duchemin is the co-founder and CEO of Ava, a company that develops live captioning technology to empower communication between deaf and hearing individuals.13

Background and Motivation

Duchemin grew up as a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults), which gave him a unique perspective on the challenges of communication between the hearing and deaf worlds.23 This personal experience inspired him to create Ava, a technological tool aimed at promoting inclusivity and autonomy for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.2

Founding of Ava

In 2014, Duchemin co-founded Ava (originally named Transcense) along with:

• Pieter Doevendans (COO)
• Skinner Cheng (CTO)14

Cheng, who is deaf, brings valuable insight to the team as both a brilliant developer and an inspiration to the company.1

Ava's Technology

Ava provides live automated captioning with various features:

• Real-time transcription
• Translation capabilities
• Text-to-speech functionality1

The company's latest innovation, Ava Voice, enables two-way conversations between hearing and deaf individuals.3 When combined with Ava Scribe, which offers highly accurate real-time captions, it creates a seamless communication experience.3

Company Growth and Vision

Under Duchemin's leadership, Ava has grown to a team of 45 people, with offices in San Francisco and Paris.1 The company continues to innovate, with Duchemin envisioning a future where AI interpreters seamlessly participate in video calls, offering fluency and fidelity comparable to professional human interpretation services.3

Duchemin's goal is to create a world that is open and accessible 24/7, using technology to break down communication barriers and democratize access to information for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community.23