Boost VC Founder Profile: Thibault Duchemin of Ava.me

Image is of Pieter Doevendans and Thibault Duchemin, founders of Ava.me

At Boost VC, we invest in Amazing Humans and we want you to hear their stories, insights, knowledge and all around awesomeness. As builders and leaders, they work tirelessly towards their vision of the future they want to realize. Our founders make science fiction a reality and we want to show off their superpowers!  

Meet Thibault Duchemin, CEO/Co-Founder of Ava.me, a company reducing the barriers of communication through a voice to text app and more. Yesterday, Ava Announced a fundraise of $4.5m, led by Initialized Capital and Khosla Ventures and the product launch of “Live Caption”. Boost VC is proud and excited to have supported Ava over the last 6 years. Today marks a huge event towards a world with no communication barriers.

6 years ago I met Thibault Duchemin. I was at a pitch competition at Cal Berkeley, judging 10 company pitches. Thibault was not signed up to be a contestant in the competition, but during the networking segment of the event, Thibault walked up to me and introduced himself. (I’m not actually sure if he was allowed to be at the event now that I think about it)

Thibault is the only hearing person in a family of deaf members. He told me his multiple attempts at bridging the gap between the deaf and the hearing, one of the attempts were functional gloves that would translate sign language motion to text. There was no product for Ava at the time, just pure focus on enabling a better world for others.

6 years later, Thibault, Pieter and Skinner have built an incredible product for mobile and PC. The product has evolved, the mission hasn’t. This is going to enable a whole population of people to be a part of the conversation!

Boost VC is excited to partner with Initialized and Khosla on this journey!