Pedius

What Pedius does

Pedius is a Rome-based for-profit social enterprise founded in 2013 by Lorenzo Di Ciaccio that provides telephone accessibility solutions for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. The company's core technology employs AI-based speech recognition and synthesis to convert user-typed text into synthetic voice during outbound phone calls and transcribe inbound voice responses into real-time text on screen, enabling independent phone communication without third-party intermediaries. The mobile application is distributed via Apple App Store and Google Play Store and operates across 14 countries in 7 languages, with a freemium consumer tier (20 free minutes per month) supplemented by paid usage-based packages ($5/100 minutes), annual unlimited subscriptions ($30/year), and incoming call services ($30/month with personal phone number).

Pedius operates a hybrid business model combining product-led consumer growth with direct enterprise sales. Enterprise offerings include accessible call center solutions, work inclusion services for deaf employees (unlimited incoming/outgoing calls and conference call participation with live subtitles), and a dedicated Pedius Education product (launched 2023) that provides real-time classroom subtitles with AI-generated concept maps for universities and schools. Major enterprise customers and partners include ENEL, BNL (Italian banking), TIM (Telecom Italia), AXA Assistance Italia, CSL (Hong Kong telecom), and DBS Bank Hong Kong, alongside government partnerships such as Roma Protezione Civile for emergency services accessibility. The company has accumulated 35,000+ users across 14 countries since founding, with documented customer outcome milestones including 1,000+ tablets distributed to Italian hospitals for deaf COVID-19 patients via TIM Foundation, and has raised approximately $2 million in disclosed funding through 2016.

Name

Pedius

Legal name

Pedius S.r.l.

Website

https://pedius.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Pedius is a Rome-based social enterprise founded in 2013 that provides AI-powered phone call accessibility solutions for deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals across 14 countries. It offers a freemium mobile app with text-to-speech and speech-to-text capabilities, plus enterprise solutions for accessible call centers, work inclusion, and education.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Assistive Communication Software

NAICS

Educational Support Services (61171)

SIC

Telephone Communications (No Radiotelephone) (4813), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro industry

PRIMARYEDAFAKAC

Assistive Hearing & Communication Access (Captioning, Hearing Support, Transcription)

Education/Education Technology (EdTech) & Digital Learning/Accessibility, Assistive Technology & Special Needs EdTech

SECONDARYEDAFAKAB

AAC (Augmentative & Alternative Communication) & Speech/Language Therapy Tech

Education/Education Technology (EdTech) & Digital Learning/Accessibility, Assistive Technology & Special Needs EdTech

Keywords

• Accessibility communication software
• Speech-to-text telephony
• Deaf accessibility solutions
• Real-time call transcription
• Assistive technology apps

Headquarters

HQ city

Rome

HQ country

Italy

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Freemium App Usage: Free basic tier providing 20 minutes of calls per month to all users, driving user acquisition and conversion to paid tiers.
2. Premium Minute Packages: Paid packages of 100 minutes for $5.00 (USD) or €5.00 (EUR), cumulable with free minutes, valid for one year.
3. Annual Unlimited Subscription: Annual subscription offering unlimited calls for $30.00/year (USD) or €30.00/year (EUR), renewable at user discretion.
4. Incoming Call Service: Monthly subscription starting from $30.00/month providing a personal telephone number for each deaf employee with unlimited incoming and outgoing calls.
5. Conference Call Solutions: Enterprise solutions for conference calls with Skype for Business integration, mobile and web accessibility, and speech recognition of multiple speakers. Sold via direct sales to enterprise customers.
6. Business/Enterprise Solutions: Companies can request demos for accessible call center solutions, work inclusion services for deaf employees, and custom enterprise integrations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Pedius provides a mobile application that enables deaf and hard of hearing individuals to make and receive phone calls independently by converting user-typed text into synthetic voice and transcribing the contact's spoken responses into real-time on-screen text. Beyond the consumer app, Pedius sells enterprise solutions including accessible call center services, work inclusion tools for deaf employees, conference call participation with live subtitles via Skype for Business integration, and a separate Pedius Education product for real-time classroom transcription and AI-generated teaching materials.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Pedius Education: Real-time subtitle service for universities and schools, providing automatic subtitles for deaf students, students with learning disabilities, and foreign students, with AI-powered concept map generation for teachers.

Products and services

• Pedius Core App Mobile application for iOS and Android that converts user-typed text into synthetic voice and transcribes spoken responses into real-time on-screen text, enabling deaf and hard of hearing individuals to make and receive phone calls independently without a third-party intermediary. Distributed via App Store and Google Play.
• Pedius Business Solutions (Accessible Call Center & Work Inclusion) Enterprise offering that enables companies to provide accessible call center services to deaf customers and work inclusion services for deaf employees, including unlimited incoming and outgoing calls, dedicated numbers, and alarm notifications. Sold via direct sales with demo requests.
• Pedius Conference Call (Skype for Business) Enterprise conference call solution with Skype for Business integration that delivers live transcribed subtitles through the web interface and mobile app, including multi-speaker speech recognition.
• Pedius Incoming Call Service Subscription service for enterprises that assigns a dedicated personal telephone number to each deaf employee, providing unlimited incoming and outgoing calls and call reception notifications. Starting at $30/month.
• Pedius Education Sub-brand product for universities, schools, and training providers that delivers real-time transcription of spoken content in classrooms using a microphone connected to a tablet, with AI-generated concept maps and teacher notes/comments for later reuse. Targets deaf students, students with learning disabilities (DSA), and foreign students.

Quantifiable outcome

• 35,000+ deaf individuals enabled to make independent phone calls
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

AI capability5 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• CSL (Hong Kong)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorCSL, the leading mobile telecommunications operator in Hong Kong, launched Pedius app in Hong Kong in September 2019, marking Pedius' entry into Asia. CSL made its call center the first accessible call center for deaf people in Hong Kong. CSL offered Pedius free to customers until December 2019 and waived mobile data charges for the app.
• DBS Bank Hong KongminorGTM or Marketing PartnerDBS Bank supported the Pedius Hong Kong launch event organized with CSL. DBS and CSL jointly donated 160 licenses for the app to Hong Kong Society for the Deaf and Silence Association.
• ENELcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerENEL partnered with Pedius to provide work inclusion services for deaf employees across Italy. Through a dedicated number, ENEL's deaf employees can make unlimited incoming and outgoing calls and actively participate in conference calls with real-time transcripts. ENEL also provides telephone assistance services for deaf customers.
• BNL (Banca Nazionale del Lavoro)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBNL became the first bank in Italy to partner with Pedius, enabling deaf people to access telephone banking services through the Pedius app.
• AXA Assistance ItaliacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAXA Assistance Italia provides telephone accessible services including ordinary and highway roadside assistance for deaf customers through Pedius integration.
• TIM (Telecom Italia)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerTIM partnered with Pedius to make customer support accessible to deaf users. Additionally, TIM Foundation donated 1,000 tablets with Pedius installed to hospitals in Italy during COVID-19. TIM also offers a hybrid home office solution combining VEASYT interpreter services with Pedius for deaf employees.
• Hong Kong Society for the DeafminorGTM or Marketing PartnerReceived 160 donated Pedius licenses from CSL and DBS Bank partnership to support deaf community in Hong Kong.
• Silence Association (Hong Kong)minorGTM or Marketing PartnerReceived 160 donated Pedius licenses from CSL and DBS Bank partnership to support deaf community in Hong Kong.
• Roma Protezione Civile (Civil Protection)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership initiated in late 2016 enabling deaf citizens to report emergencies such as fires, floods, and accidents directly from their mobile phones using Pedius app, 24 hours a day.
• ENEL PerucoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerENEL Peru partnership launched Pedius app publicly in Peru, with over 335 active users recorded.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• VEASYT: VEASYT provides remote sign-language interpretation services and is already an integration partner of Pedius (via TIM's hybrid home-office solution) — an adjacent player in the deaf accessibility ecosystem that combines with Pedius' automated calling.
• Ava: Ava provides real-time AI-powered live captioning for meetings and conversations, with a strong focus on deaf and hard-of-hearing workplace inclusion — emerging in adjacent accessibility transcription that overlaps with Pedius' Education and conference-call offerings.
• Be My Eyes: Be My Eyes connects blind and low-vision users to sighted volunteers and AI for visual assistance, and has expanded into broader accessibility scenarios for deaf users as well — adjacent peer serving the same broader accessibility community.

Direct peers

• RogerVoice: RogerVoice provides a mobile app that transcribes phone calls in real time and reads typed messages aloud for deaf and hard-of-hearing users — a near-identical core offering to Pedius, operating across multiple countries.
• Convo Relay: Convo provides relay and video relay services that let deaf and hard-of-hearing users place phone calls via interpreters — overlapping with Pedius' core phone-call accessibility mission, though with an interpreter-mediated model rather than fully automated AI.
• InnoCaption: InnoCaption offers live captioning of phone calls on iPhone and Android for deaf and hard-of-hearing users, with free and professional captioner-assisted tiers — directly competing with Pedius in the captioned-phone-call category.

Broad incumbents

• Microsoft Teams Live Captions: Microsoft Teams offers real-time live captions and transcription natively across meetings, representing a free, platform-level alternative that competes with Pedius' conference-call subtitling and education transcription features.
• Otter.ai: Otter.ai offers AI meeting transcription and live captions across web and mobile — a much larger, general-purpose incumbent whose live captioning features overlap with Pedius' transcription core and could expand into phone-call captioning.
• Hamilton Relay: Hamilton Relay operates state-contracted telecommunications relay services (TRS) in multiple US states for deaf and hard-of-hearing users — a broader incumbent in accessible telephony that competes for the same end users as Pedius.
• Sorenson Communications: Sorenson is a long-established provider of relay and video relay services (VRS/IP-CTS) for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community in the US, offering a much wider portfolio that overlaps with Pedius' phone-call accessibility use case.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/pediuscall
• Facebookfacebook.com/PediusCall
• Instagraminstagram.com/pediuscall
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/pedius

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds5 records

Investors8 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Pedius