Technology entrepreneurs who secured £2million investment as teenagers announce launch of Echo AI - the UK's first smart digital note-taking assistant

SOUTHAMPTON, England, Jan. 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Two young tech entrepreneurs who secured £2milion of investment at the age of 19 are launching a "game changing" AI-powered note-taking assistant designed to boost the productivity of UK businesses.

Ben O'Nion and Charlie Gray, backed by tech investment specialist Ridown Group, have developed Echo AI – a smart bot that can attend meetings and automatically deliver transcripts, summaries, deep insights, sentiment analysis and personalised action points.

Following a period of beta testing and trials with individuals working at UK businesses including Vodafone, Starbucks UK, Gamma and JCB, Echo AI is now available to all at MeetEcho.io

Echo AI works across online meeting platforms including Teams, Zoom and Google Meet, and is designed to save businesses and individuals time and increase productivity.

The digital assistant frees up participants to be active in meetings without being distracted by the need to take notes, providing summaries that are usually far more accurate and comprehensive than traditional methods.

Echo AI can even attend a meeting on a user's behalf, providing everything needed for them to catch up on the meeting and any decisions made when it suits them.

Ben said: "Echo AI exists to help teams become more efficient, ensuring they stay on track and don't miss outcomes, action points and context in meetings."

"Productivity can suffer when people lose track of meetings, fail to remember what was said and agreed and are not clear about the actions they are responsible for."

"Echo AI takes all the guesswork out of it, giving everyone an accurate record of the meeting and what was agreed. Businesses which have used Echo AI tell us that it creates time, reduces misunderstandings and slip-ups and helps keep teams focused on tasks."

"We are proud to roll Echo AI out UK-wide to help the nation's businesses harness the power of smart notetaking."

Echo AI is optimised for UK businesses, with regional language context, spellings and grammar and full GDPR compliance built in.

All data is held in the UK and Northern Ireland, and businesses have full control over how their data is used and stored. There is also the option for businesses to use their own branding to customise the service.

Ben and Charlie are the founders of OneHive, which develops smart digital solutions to boost productivity for businesses and individuals.

At just 19 years old they successfully pitched to Darren Ridge and Aaron Brown, co-founders of Ridown Group, an investor in telecoms and tech startups, to raise £2m in funding.

Aaron said: "Ben and Charlie are incredibly impressive young entrepreneurs who have developed an outstanding product in Echo AI."

"We have made a significant investment in them because we believe Echo AI is a game changer – an example of how the power of AI can be used for good, freeing up teams to focus on the tasks that matter while keeping projects on track and ensuring full compliance, accountability and data security."

"We are proud to launch Echo AI and excited to be with Ben and Charlie on this journey as we establish the product as a must-have for successful and productive businesses."

Echo AI has a range of pricing options from £19.95 per month for an individual user Pro account, a Business account at £24.95 for up to 250 users, and custom pricing for enterprise customers.

Pro and Business accounts are available on a seven-day trial without obligation.

For more information see www.meetecho.io

For Echo AI updates follow Ben O'Nion at linkedin.com/in/benonion and Charlie Gray at linked.in.com.in/charliegray05

About Ridown Group

Ridown is a forward-thinking, proactive private investment company with an enviable reputation for building and growing brands into multi-million-pound success stories.

Owned by telecoms entrepreneurs Darren Ridge and Aaron Brown, who were the founders of Onecom, the UK's largest independent business to business communications provider, Ridown specialises in partnering with businesses to unlock investment, helping them reach their potential through organic growth and strategic acquisition.

Ridown Group companies include broadband provider Onestream, award-winning device recycling leader WeBuyAnyPhone.com, business IT specialist Hosted and the data security provider CyberSentry.

For more information see www.Ridown.com

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