eKidz Opens Child-Specific Speech Recognition to Power an Inclusive Literacy Ecosystem

By making specialized ASR affordable and accessible, eKidz enables the entire literacy field to rise

MUNICH, Germany | February 9, 2026 — eKidz today announced a major step toward inclusive, voice-based literacy by opening access to its child-specific speech recognition technology through affordable licensing and APIs. By making specialized automatic speech recognition (ASR) models available to education and assessment providers, eKidz is enabling multilingual learners and students with learning differences to be accurately understood at scale, no matter where or how they learn.

This approach marks a shift in how voice technology serves education. Rather than keeping advanced models locked inside a single product, eKidz is opening its ASR infrastructure so curriculum publishers, assessment organizations, and EdTech innovators can build high-quality, child-safe voice experiences without prohibitive cost or technical barriers.

Built specifically for young learners, eKidz’s ASR platform performs in real-world classrooms where general-purpose voice systems often fail. It recognizes children’s speech with phoneme-level precision, handles classroom-grade background noise, and supports diverse accents, dialects, code-switching, and disability-related speech patterns.

“Voice is becoming a primary interface for learning, and children deserve technology that is built for them and available to all,” said Nataliya Tetruyeva, CEO of eKidz. “By making our child-specific ASR inclusive and accessible, we are helping ensure that every child is accurately heard, not just those using a single platform or product.”

This commitment to inclusive infrastructure was recently recognized by the Global EdTech Startup Awards (GESAwards), which awarded eKidz for its AI-powered, child-specific speech recognition Advancing Children’s Literacy worldwide.

“eKidz exemplifies what meaningful AI in education should look like,” said Avi Warshavsky, Founder of GESAwards and CEO of MindCET. “Their technology is purpose-built for children, grounded in research, and designed to ensure every child is truly heard.”

Enabling an inclusive literacy ecosystem through licensing

eKidz’s licensing strategy provides specialized ASR models for children through APIs and tailored commercial frameworks. This allows partners to integrate safe, high-quality voice recognition into reading instruction, oral assessment, and formative learning tools without building ASR systems from scratch.

The result is faster innovation, better interoperability, and voice-based learning and assessment tools that are inclusive by design rather than limited by access to proprietary technology. Initial pilot integrations are already underway, signaling a move toward a more connected and equitable literacy ecosystem.

“eKidz is tackling one of the hardest problems in educational AI: generating trustworthy evidence from children’s speech at scale,” said Alina von Davier, Senior Research Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University and advisor to eKidz. “Their child-specific ASR sets a new bar for how voice technologies can support learning and assessment across multilingual and diverse learners.”

Designed for safety, trust, and school readiness

eKidz’s platform is built with a kid-safe approach that prioritizes privacy, reliability, and responsible use in educational settings. Development emphasizes safeguards, developmentally appropriate interaction design, and alignment with classroom realities shaped through educator collaboration and pilots.

Validation today, access for millions tomorrow

Today, eKidz’s ASR platform is used by more than 300,000 students across classrooms and homes in the United States and Europe, providing strong real-world validation of its performance. In Europe, deployments include Germany and Luxembourg, while in Latin America the company is advancing major initiatives in Colombia with additional programs in development across the region.

While these hundreds of thousands of learners validate the technology, eKidz’s open licensing strategy is designed to ensure that millions of children worldwide benefit from accurate, inclusive voice-based literacy through the broader ecosystem.

About eKidz

eKidz builds a kid-safe conversational platform powered by inclusive, child-specific speech recognition and guardrail AI. Its technology recognizes diverse accents, dialects, code-switching, and disability-related speech patterns, enabling equitable coaching and assessment across reading, writing, and learning.

Media Contact

Nataliya (Natasha) Tetruyeva
Co-Founder and CEO, eKidz
nataliya.tetruyeva@ekidz.eu
+49 176 72811809
www.ekidz.eu