SANTA CLARA–Shubham Banerjee, 13, is an eighth-grader with his own company that’s not just successful, but also gives back. Yup, you read that right.
Banerjee created a low-cost machine that prints Braille, the textured text used by blind people. The company he created that produces the machines is called Braigo Labs. His ultimate goal is to produce a desktop printer for Braille for about $350 that weighs just a few pounds, according to CBC News.
Initially, Banerjee built a Braille printer using a Legos robotics kit–specifically, Lego Mindstorms EV3–for a science fair at school in February 2014, according to Banerjee’s YouTube account.
It all started when he asked his parents how blind people read, and they told him to Google it. When he did, he found that Braille printers cost a minimum of $2,000–an outrageous cost to the average person–and they weigh more than 20 pounds.
His proposal is so promising that Intel Corp. recently invested in Braigo Labs–named to combine Braille and Lego. However, his business started when his dad invested $35,000 in him last summer, allowing him to make a more advance machine than his initial Lego one. This new model translates text into Braille.
Banerjee said, “I have been working with bootstrapped funds from my parents since February 2014. I am ecstatic that Intel Capital is investing early in our effort to disrupt the braille printer/embosser industry.
