When talking about innovation that matters, one name that truly stands out is Elly Savatia.
A 24-year-old Kenyan Entrepreneur has created tech that doesn’t just solve problems but opens the door that has been closed for far too many people.
During a robotics class in Northern Kenya, Savatia came across a class of 300 deaf students and one interpreter. One person is trying to bridge the communication gap for 300 people trying to learn. This incident deeply moved him, revealing the absence of opportunities because of something as basic as communication.
TREP 360
With a clear mission to break down the walls between hearing and deaf communities, Savatia founded Signvrse in 2023. The centerpiece, Terp 360, is deceptively simple in concept. It’s like Google Translate but for sign language, using 3D avatars that translate speech in real time.
Anybody who’s familiar with sign language will tell you it’s not just about hand shapes. What actually conveys meaning and emotions is the subtle rotation of facial expressions and body movement. Savatia understood from the beginning that a robotic, stiff translation misses the point entirely. Therefore, he decided to make a smart move and built the technology with the deaf communities. His team partnered with deaf Kenyans to record over 2,300 signs and set up a motion capture studio in Nairobi that can learn 1,000 words a day.
After working with NGOs and news stations that have years of sign language video footage, they resulted in Avatars that move like humans and capture the nuance that makes sign language a language.
Why does this matter so much?
In Kenya, for every 1,000 deaf individuals, there’s approximately one interpreter. Which means there’s a need for a translator for every conversation, every job interview, every doctor’s appointment, every consultant appointment, and there’s only one available for you and 999 other people.
Reportedly, the comprehensive rates have jumped 40% in early pilot programs using Terp 360. That covers how, for years, people have been sitting in hospitals, workplaces, and classrooms, understanding less than half of what’s being said. All because we failed to build the bridge they needed.
Recognition
Savatia was awarded £50,000 in October 2024 by the UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering for winning the eminent Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation. He also won the Kenya Presidential Innovation Award and the Commonwealth Secretary-General’s Innovation for Sustainable Development Award. He was selected by Google for its Generative AI Accelerator program. All these trophies are symbols of validation that what he’s building genuinely matters.
Savatia Philosophy
One principle that Savatia holds to his heart is “You don’t build solutions and take them to the people; you build with them.”
He believes in listening first and then partnering with the communities he’s serving. Their feedback, their lived knowledge, their experience is what he incorporates, which results in technology that actually works for the people who need it most.
In the generation where everybody is busy admiring infrastructures. We need to pay more attention to African innovators solving African problems with world-class solutions.
At the age of 24, Savatia has already achieved more than many do in a lifetime. But when you come across his interviews, you’ll realise he’s just getting started. Trep 360 is the foundation, not the endgame. His work with 360 is helping thousands of people.
Savatia is trying his best to mentor young innovators through Innovate 4 SDGs and proving that technical excellence and social consciousness are complementary and not contradictory.
Conclusion
Elly Savatia is the answer to the young generation, who are looking at the problems in their community and wondering if they can make a difference. He is the living proof that you don’t need perfect resources or ideal circumstances. What you need is curiosity, empathy, persistence, and a belief that barriers exist to be broken down.
Savatia is not just building bridges between hearing and deaf communities but between the world as it is and the world as it should be.
