ACAPELA GROUP BABEL TECHNOLOGIES SA

Their core work

Acapela Group is a commercial speech technology company specializing in text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis and synthetic voice solutions. They develop artificial voices and voice interfaces used in accessibility tools, health applications, and transportation systems. In EU research projects, they function as specialist providers of voice synthesis and spoken dialogue technology, integrating production-ready speech components into larger AI-driven systems. Their participation in projects targeting elderly care and aviation crew assistance reflects a clear focus on human-machine voice interaction in demanding real-world environments.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

With project starts limited to a narrow 2017-2018 window and no keyword metadata available, the evolution within their H2020 portfolio is constrained. They entered EU research through health-focused voice coaching for elderly populations (EMPATHIC), then quickly expanded into safety-critical transport environments with the Clean Sky 2 aviation voice assistant project (VOICI). The direction suggests a deliberate move from consumer-facing assistive applications toward professional, mission-critical voice interfaces — a meaningful strategic shift even across just two projects.

Acapela Group appears to be moving from assistive health applications toward high-reliability voice interfaces in professional transport settings, suggesting growing ambition in safety-critical human-machine interaction.

How they like to work

Acapela Group participates exclusively as a consortium partner — never as a coordinator — across their H2020 projects, acting as a specialist technology provider brought in for specific voice synthesis capabilities. With 14 unique partners across 7 countries from just 2 projects, they engage in mid-to-large European consortia rather than small bilateral collaborations. This pattern is typical of commercial SMEs that contribute a defined technical component and let academic or industrial leads manage the project overall.

Acapela Group connected with 14 unique consortium partners across 7 countries through only 2 H2020 projects, indicating broad pan-European reach relative to their portfolio size. Their presence in both a standard RIA and a Clean Sky 2 industry initiative shows access to different consortium ecosystems — academic-led and industry-driven alike.

What sets them apart

Acapela Group brings commercial-grade, production-ready speech synthesis technology to research consortia — a rare combination in H2020 where most voice technology partners are academic. Their ability to contribute actual deployable voice products rather than research prototypes makes them valuable for projects that need to demonstrate working systems to end users or in regulated environments. As a Belgian SME with documented multilingual voice capabilities, they are well-placed for European projects requiring accessible, multi-language spoken interfaces.

Highlights from their portfolio

• EMPATHIC
  The largest-funded project in their portfolio (EUR 308,500) with a 4-year duration, targeting AI-driven voice coaching for elderly independent living — a high-impact societal challenge with strong downstream commercial potential.
• VOICI
  Participation in the Clean Sky 2 Joint Technology Initiative places them in a high-standard, safety-critical aviation research environment well beyond typical health or social innovation consortia.