Phonetico speaks 6 languages. It's learning to speak more.

From Ethiopia,
for the world.

Most African languages don’t have speech technology. Phonetico builds the foundation so speech technology can be made accessible for everyone.

The Landscape

Progress is being made. Researchers, startups, and open-source communities are pushing speech technology forward across Africa. That work matters.

But the gap is still enormous. Ethiopia alone has over 80 languages spoken by 120 million people. Most have no voice assistant. No system that can transcribe their speech. No voice in technology at all. At least 16 are classified as endangered.

The change can be accelerated. What’s needed is the right foundation.

What We Do

We build the foundation.

Speech technology isn’t just data. It’s models, research, and infrastructure that others can build on. We create that.

We collect voice data at scale, verify its quality, train models, publish our research openly, and release a portion of what we collect for public benefit. When the foundation is right, everything built on top of it gets better.

Collect

An offline-first app built for rural connectivity. Speakers record their voice, and consent is captured for every recording.

Verify

Audio is quality-checked before it’s accepted. Contributors are paid fairly for their time.

We train models, publish our research, and release data so others can build on it.

Contributors earn approximately 12x Ethiopia’s national median wage (per ILO data). Fair compensation isn’t just the right thing to do. It produces better data.

Who We Are

We are a group of people who understand languages, technology, and the deep role they play in every culture. When a language is left out of technology, that culture is left behind. Phonetico exists to change that.

An Ethiopian-led team. Jobs in Ethiopia. Data that stays in Ethiopian hands.

Team