Pioneering Developer of Speech Recognition for Kids Taps Former CFO Shazam as CFO
August 2, 2019
Colm O’Carroll comes to SoapBox Labs from Apple; previously served as CFO for music app, Shazam.
SoapBox Labs, mission-oriented developer of speech recognition that works for children, today announced the appointment of former Shazam Chief Financial Officer, Colm O’Carroll as Chief Financial Officer.
Created to power a wide range of children’s applications in education, toys, games, robots and AR/VR, SoapBox Labs’ unique speech recognition technology is tailored to the physical and behavioural differences in children’s speech.
O’Carroll, the company’s second C-level hire in recent months, joined Apple following his pivotal role in the company’s acquisition of Shazam to Apple in September 2018.
“After the acquisition by Apple, I missed being part of a young tech company. SoapBox Labs reminds me, in many ways, of Shazam – a rapidly scaling, deep tech company in the midst of a truly transformative period for children’s technology. This is a team motivated by harnessing the power of speech recognition technology to help fulfill the potential of young children everywhere, for literacy and language learning, as well as for fun”.
SoapBox Labs Founder and CEO Dr. Patricia Scanlon was recognised by Forbes as one of the World’s Top 50 Women in Tech in 2018. Her popular Tedx Talk on the role of technology in a child’s reading journey received nearly 40,000 views in its first month alone.
“Colm’s track record of translating strategy into growth for companies like Shazam, Google, and Warner Bros will help to guide our success as we continue our expansion across global markets” said Scanlon about the appointment. “He reached out to us at the right time in our scaling journey and the passion he communicated for our mission was really exciting. The past few years have been about building our proprietary speech recognition technology for kids, securing key partnerships and laying foundations in new markets. Colm is an important addition to the team at this next stage in our trajectory”.
About SoapBox Labs: SoapBox Labs has developed the world’s most accurate proprietary speech recognition technology for children. Our voice solutions power applications in the education, games, robots, toys and AR/VR markets and offer a safe and accurate voice interface experience for young kids. SoapBox Labs is fully US COPPA and EU GDPR compliant.
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