While working at Oracle, Navin Thadani found himself wrestling with an unexpected technical challenge.
He was trying to make the company’s existing applications more digitally accessible—part of a growing personal interest in ensuring that all consumers, including those with disabilities, can successfully use websites and apps—but it was tough. He and Oracle colleague Gal Moav realized why they were having so much trouble: There just weren’t the right kind of automated tools available. So, the two left Oracle in 2018 to cofound Evinced, a startup building solutions to improve web and mobile accessibility.
To date, Evinced has raised $57 million, from backers like Insight Partners, Microsoft’s M12, and Capital One Ventures. Thadani, who serves as the CEO, says there’s been a “tremendous increase” in the number of companies that want to make their software accessible since the startup launched.
“Enterprises need to make it a priority, and they are beginning to do that right now,” he told Fortune.
But that progress hasn’t kept up within the fast-growing realm of AI, particularly when it comes to the accessibility of LLMs.
Evinced surveyed the most popular AI platforms and found they all had what the company terms “critical accessibility errors.” The most common of these errors include screen reader and keyboard compatibility issues. Evinced’s data found that Perplexity (a popular AI developer with a revenue-sharing partnership with Fortune) had 123 critical errors. Cohere had 46, OpenAI’s ChatGPT had 36, Anthropic’s Claude had 10, and Mistral had 8. All the companies declined or didn’t respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
The data was first shared with Fortune at the end of August, and it’s possible that there have been improvements since, especially as AI is nascent and evolving quickly. (OpenAI, for example, has publicly discussed its push towards multimodality—which allows users to talk and listen to and with AI—this year.)
Evinced obviously has an incentive in beating this drum, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an important one: Digital accessibility extends far beyond AI—it’s a vital but frequently forgotten space that impacts more than one billion people. The World Health Organization approximates that today there are 1.3 billion people who “experience significant disability” across the world. Still, digital accessibility-focused nonprofit WebAIM’s 2024 report estimates that nearly 96% of home pages still fail to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
“We have had robust scanning tools for years now and still we are not getting basic accessibility,” said Lucy Greco, web accessibility evangelist at UC Berkeley, via email.
Ultimately, better accessibility practices are beneficial to everyone, said Fred Moltz, Chief Accessibility Officer at Verizon, an Evinced customer.
“If you do accessibility well, it’s not just for people with disabilities,” said Moltz. “It’s usually a 99.9% better experience for everybody.”
In case you haven’t heard, there’s a U.S. election tomorrow and there’s a lot that Silicon Valley doesn’t agree on. But it’s hard to argue this: If these tools are changing the world, they should be accessible to everyone.
“To me, it’s exciting to know we can improve the experience for billions of people worldwide,” said Thadani.
ICYMI…Friday, I had the scoop on Theory Ventures’ new $450 million fund.
See you tomorrow,
Allie Garfinkle
Twitter: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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VENTURE DEALS
– BETA Technologies, a South Burlington, Vt.-based electric aerospace company, raised $318 million in Series C funding. QIA led the round and was joined by United Therapeutics, existing investors Fidelity Management & Research Company, TPG Rise, and others.
– Melio, a New York City-based accounts payable and receivable platform for small and medium businesses, raised $150 million in Series E funding. Fiserv led the round and was joined by Shopify Ventures and Capital One Ventures.
– Leal Therapeutics, a Worcester, Mass.-based central nervous system disorders therapeutics developer, raised $45 million in funding. Newpath Partners led the round and was joined by Chugai Venture Fund, Alexandria Venture Investments, and existing investors OrbiMed, Euclidean Capital, and PhiFund.
– Cintoo, a Biot-Sophia Antipolis, France-based reality capture data management platform, raised €37 million ($40.3 million) in Series B funding. Partech led the round and was joined by existing investors Amavi Capital and Armilar Venture Partners.
– Noma, a Tel Aviv-based data and AI lifecycle security platform developer, raised $32 million in funding. Glilot Capital Partners led the $7 million seed round and was joined by Cyber Club London. Ballistic Ventures led the $32 million Series A round and was joined by angel investors.
– Transaera, a Boston-based air conditioning company, raised $8.2 million in seed funding. Clean Energy Ventures led the round and was joined by MassMutual Ventures and existing investor Energy Impact Partners.
–Troveo, a Los Angeles-based AI monetization platform for content owners, raised $4.5 million in seed funding from Seven Seven Six and angel investors.
– Ataraxis AI, a New York City-based AI precision medicine developer, raised $4 million in seed funding. Giant Ventures and Obvious Ventures led the round and were joined by angel investors.
– Afference, a Boulder-based wearable neural interfaces developer, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Hannah Grey VC led the round and was joined by Samsung NEXT, Konvoy, and angel investors.
– Workgrounds, a New York City-based hotel group bookings management platform, raised $2.6 million in pre-seed funding from Oceans Ventures, Hannah Grey, Volo Ventures, and deftly.vc.
PRIVATE EQUITY
– American Industrial Partners acquired the grain and protein division of AGCO Corporation, a Duluth, G.A.-based agricultural machinery and technology company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– Baker Manufacturing Company, a portfolio company of Blue Sage Capital, acquired the pump division of A.Y. McDonald, a Dubuque, Iowa-based water works, natural gas, and plumbing products manufacturer. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– Battery Ventures acquired a majority stake in QSR Automations, a Louisville-based restaurant technology solutions developer. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– Transtar Holding Company, a portfolio company of Blue Point Capital Partners, acquired 4M Parts Warehouse, a Cleburne, Texas-based auto parts distributor, and City Auto Supply, a South San Francisco, Calif.-based auto parts distributor. Financial terms were not disclosed.
EXITS
– The Access Group agreed to acquire Paytronix, a Newton, Mass.-based guest engagement platform for restaurants and convenience stores, from Great Hill Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
OTHER
– U.S. Physical Therapy acquired a 50% stake in MSO Metro, the management services organization of Metro Physical & Aquatic Therapy, a Garden City, N.Y.-based physical therapy platform, for approximately $76.5 million.
– Celsius acquired Big Beverages Contract Manufacturing, a Huntersville, N.C.-based beverage co-packer, for $75 million.
– Drilling Tools International agreed to acquire Titan Tools Services, an Aberdeen, Scotland-based down-hole tool rental company. Financial terms were not disclosed.
– Tuple Technologies acquired iQmedia Technology Group, a Morristown, N.J.-based managed cloud, analytics, and computer security and compliance services provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
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