Talking Hands Pitch Deck (2022): 16-Slide Seed Deck

Talking Hands presents a compelling case for a niche EdTech product that bridges the gap between physical learning tools and digital potential. The deck, used for their 2022 seed round, relies heavily on a personal 'founder-market fit' narrative, specifically citing the co-founder's sister as the inspiration for the product. While the deck is visually cohesive and demonstrates significant early traction—claiming 1,000 day care centers and schools as users in Germany—it is notably light on financial mechanics. There are no slides dedicated to unit economics, revenue projections, or a specific…

Key takeaways

• The problem statement cites that approximately 1 in 10 children suffer from hearing or speech impairment (Slide 4).
• The company emphasizes a personal connection, noting that co-founder Laura Mohn's sister has Down syndrome (Slide 4).
• Talking Hands positions its flip books as a 'fun-factor' alternative to 'dry and medical' traditional tools (Slide 5 and 7).
• Traction is quantified by the statement that about 1,000 day care centers, schools, and speech therapists in Germany use the product (Slide 10).
• The competitive analysis uses a thumbs-up/down matrix to claim superiority in 'learning incentive for ALL kids' and 'App Potential' (Slide 11).
• The team is lean, consisting of three leads focused on Product-Design, App Development & IT, and Marketing/Distribution (Slide 12).
• Validation is heavily supported by a dedicated 'Awards' slide featuring four distinct industry recognitions (Slide 14).
• The deck completely omits a financial 'Ask' slide, business model details, and a roadmap for future growth.

Frequently asked questions

What is the core product of Talking Hands?

The core product is a series of flip books designed to teach sign language to children in a playful, 'multi-sensual' way. As shown on Slide 7, these books use illustrations to demonstrate signs, allowing children to learn through physical interaction rather than just digital screens or medical textbooks. The deck also hints at 'App Potential' in its competitive matrix, suggesting a digital expansion of the physical product.

How does the company demonstrate market traction?

Talking Hands demonstrates traction through institutional adoption rather than raw revenue figures. Slide 10 states that approximately 1,000 day care centers, schools, and speech therapists in Germany already use the system in their daily lives. This is supplemented by a 'Public Relations' slide (Slide 13) showing appearances on television programs like 'Die Höhle der Löwen' (the German version of Shark Tank) and various print media features.

Who are the key members of the team?

As per Slide 12, the leadership team consists of Laura Mohn (Product-Design), Jacob v. Bethmann (App Development & IT), and Maria Möller (Marketing, Distribution). The slide also notes their affiliation with 'Unibator,' the business incubator of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, providing academic and institutional backing to the founding team.

What is missing from this pitch deck?

The deck is missing several standard venture capital components. There is no slide detailing the business model (pricing, margins, or distribution costs), no financial projections, and no clear 'Ask' stating how much money is being raised or how it will be spent. Additionally, there is no detailed roadmap or go-to-market strategy for international expansion beyond the German market mentioned on Slide 10.

How does Talking Hands differentiate itself from competitors?

Talking Hands uses Slide 11 to differentiate itself from four other sign language and speech tools. It claims to be the only solution that provides a 'learning incentive for ALL kids' (not just those with disabilities) and the only one that is 'visually appealing.' They also claim superior 'App Potential' and 'comprehensibility' compared to established systems like Makaton.

Talking Hands pitch deck: the facts

Company

Talking Hands

Year

2022

Stage

Seed

Slides

16

Sector

EdTech

Talking Hands pitch deck PDF

The full Talking Hands deck is embedded on this page and can be read slide by slide in the browser — no download or account required. Each slide is covered in the breakdown above.

What the talking hands flipbooks GmbH pitch deck was used for

This is the 2022 **seed-stage** fundraising deck of talking hands flipbooks GmbH, an EdTech social startup from Frankfurt that turns individual sign language gestures into physical flipbooks so children with and without disabilities can learn to sign playfully. The deck focuses on inclusion in early childhood education by making sign language learning modern, user-centered, and fun, contrasting their flipbooks with outdated, clinical learning tools. In early 2022 the company raised a seed round from prominent European business angels to expand the team, broaden the product portfolio, and scale into other EU member states. The deck accompanied that seed financing effort, positioning talking hands as an inclusion-tech solution bridging children with and without disabilities through playful sign language learning tools.

Business model: Develops and sells physical flipbooks and related learning materials that teach basic sign language vocabulary to children in a playful, multi-sensory way, primarily via sales to daycare centers, schools, therapy practices, and private households.

Round

Seed

Investors

Christoph Keese (Managing Director, Axel Springer Consulting Group)., Eric Demuth (Founder and CEO, Bitpanda)., Dennis Schmoltzi (Co‑founder, Emma‑Matratzen)., Manuel Müller (Co‑founder, Emma‑Matratzen)., Ilknur Gur (Founder and Director, Tiana)., Additional business angels whose names are not all publicly disclosed.

Founded

October 2020

Founders

Laura Mohn., Maria Möller.

Industry

EdTech / Inclusion Tech (learning materials for sign language and assisted communication).

Year: 2022 (seed round closed 25 February 2022).

Raised: A mid‑six‑figure sum (exact amount not publicly disclosed) in the seed round, following a $12.5K grant in 2021.

Headquarters: Frankfurt am Main, Germany (Ostparkstraße 11, 60314 Frankfurt am Main; also associated with Unibator, Senckenberganlage 31, Frankfurt, Hessen).

Total funding: At least a mid-six-figure seed round closed on 25 February 2022, plus a prior grant of $12.5K and later accelerator/ incubator support.

Use of funds as presented: To expand the team, broaden the product portfolio around sign-language learning and inclusion, and scale operations into additional EU member states.

What happened after the talking hands flipbooks GmbH deck

Following its October 2020 founding and initial bootstrapping by the founders, Talking Hands secured a grant in 2021 and then closed a mid‑six‑figure seed round on 25 February 2022 backed by several notable European business angels. The company has since continued to grow as an inclusion-focused EdTech venture, expanding its product range of sign-language flipbooks, entering accelerator/ incubator

• Founding of talking hands in October 2020 in Frankfurt am Main.
• Completion of a grant round of approximately $12.5K in September 2021.
• Closure of a seed financing round on 25 February 2022 with multiple business angels, raising a mid‑six‑figure sum used t
• Participation in accelerator/ incubator programs after the seed round, with the company reported as generating revenue i
• Continued product development, including expanded flipbook sets and the launch of a mobile app to complement physical le

What the talking hands flipbooks GmbH deck got right

• Compelling inclusion-focused vision and mission. The deck articulates a strong, socially impactful vision of fostering inclusion worldwide through modern, user-centered sign-language learning tools, clearly linking flipbooks to breaking linguistic barriers between children with and without disabilities, which resonates with the company’s broader inclusion-tech positioning.
• Clear problem framing around outdated, non-playful learning tools. The problem slides emphasize that current sign-language learning tools are outdated, dry, and overly medical, and argue that inclusion requires all children to learn sign language in a fun, exciting way, framing a clear and emotionally resonant pain point for educators and parents.
• Well-defined product solution centered on playful, modern flipbooks. The solution slide positions talking hands flipbooks as a playful, modern design-led product that introduces a fun factor into sign-language learning, aligning closely with later descriptions of multi-sensory flipbooks that make learning interactive for children with and without disabilities.
• Credible educator testimonial reinforcing effectiveness and engagement. The proof-of-concept slide includes a testimonial from a day-care teacher highlighting the multi-sensory experience and children’s pride and motivation when presenting memorized signs, providing qualitative validation from the target environment (daycare) rather than only founder claims.
• Strong alignment of founder story, early traction, and angel interest. The deck leverages the founders’ personal narrative and early institutional traction (use in daycare centers and schools) to support the seed raise from prominent European business angels, effectively tying social mission to commercial interest and demonstrating real-world adoption.
• Distinctive physical-first, multi-sensory product format. The physical-first approach—turning individual gestures into flipbooks that run like short movies—offers a distinctive, tangible learning medium that is easy for investors to understand and picture being used in classrooms and therapy settings, reinforcing product clarity.

What could have been stronger

• Limited quantitative traction disclosed in the deck text provided. The slides shared focus on vision, the problem of outdated sign-language tools, and the playful flipbook solution, but provide no quantitative traction—no unit sales, revenue, number of institutions using the product, or growth metrics—despite the company already selling to daycare centers and other institutions by 2021.
• Scalability and product roadmap not clearly articulated. The deck heavily emphasizes physical flipbooks and multi-sensory learning, but the slides shown do not clarify longer-term product roadmap (e.g., digital apps, curriculum integration, or platform features), which could leave investors uncertain about scalability beyond physical products even though the company later launched an app.
• Lack of explicit competitive landscape and differentiation detail. While the problem framing argues existing sign-language tools are dry and medical, the deck text offers no competitive mapping or explicit differentiation against specific alternative learning tools, making it harder for investors to assess the startup’s moat relative to other educational resources.
• Some vision wording is diffuse and may reduce clarity. The vision statement in the OCR text is compelling but linguistically somewhat fragmented and repetitive, which may dilute clarity around the core value proposition and international expansion strategy, even though the company aims to scale across EU member states.
• Commercial model and GTM left implicit in the visible slides. No clear go-to-market or pricing strategy appears in the extracted slides, despite the business already having a defined pricing model and institutional customer segment (e.g., per‑flipbook pricing, sets, institutional discounts), potentially leaving investors to infer commercial strategy from narrative rather than explicit plan.

How an investor would read this deck

What draws attention

• Evidence of strong mission alignment with **inclusion tech**, addressing communication barriers for children with Down syndrome and hearing or speech impairments through playful sign-language learning tools.
• Demonstrated early product-market fit via institutional customers in daycare centers, elementary schools, and therapy practices, and a catalog of around 100 translated words in flipbook format.
• Clear founder story with personal commitment and prior bootstrapping (founders investing their own capital before the seed round), suggesting resilience and mission-driven execution.
• Social-impact positioning combined with a tangible, easy-to-understand product that can be showcased physically and via testimonials from educators.
• Planned use of seed funds to expand team, product portfolio, and EU presence, which ties directly into a scaling narrative that investors can track post-investment.

Risks that stand out

• Reliance on physical product manufacturing and distribution for core revenue could constrain scalability and margins compared with purely digital EdTech offerings, requiring strong operational execution to expand internationally.
• The flipbooks build on nationally standardized sign languages (e.g., German Sign Language), so expansion into other EU markets may require substantial localization work and collaboration with local experts, potentially slowing growth.
• As a social-impact startup focused on inclusion, Talking Hands may face challenges attracting certain investor segments that prioritize rapid, high-margin scalability over hybrid impact‑commercial returns, even though it has already attracted notable angels.
• EdTech purchasing cycles in public-sector and institutional contexts (schools, kindergartens, therapy centers) can be long and bureaucratic, potentially affecting cash flow and making forecasting more complex.
• Competition from digital-only sign-language learning tools or broader communication-assistance platforms could emerge, and the deck’s limited articulation of unique defensibility may raise concerns about long-term differentiation if not addressed in subsequent materials.

Questions this deck invites

• What were the key revenue and unit sales figures (e.g., number of flipbooks sold, number of institutions served, annual revenue) at the time of the 2022 seed round, and how have these grown since?
• How does Talking Hands plan to scale beyond physical flipbooks—what is the roadmap for digital products, curriculum integration, and recurring revenue models, especially given the later launch of a mobile app?
• What are the unit economics for flipbooks (production cost, sale price, gross margin, and any volume discount structures), and how do these economics change when selling to institutions versus households?
• Which programs, grants, or accelerators (e.g., the 2021 grant and later accelerator/incubator support) have Talking Hands participated in, and what validation or resources did these provide?
• How defensible is the product and brand from competition, particularly regarding intellectual property around the flipbook designs and the use of national sign languages, and how is Talking Hands approaching localization for other EU market

What founders can take from the talking hands flipbooks GmbH deck

• A clear, mission-driven **inclusion narrative**—showing how sign-language flipbooks let children with and without disabilities communicate together—can be a powerful framing for seed-stage investors when paired with a tangible product.
• Grounding the problem in the lived experience of outdated, clinical learning tools and positioning a playful, well-designed alternative helps investors understand both social impact and user value quickly.
• Including educator testimonials that reference multi-sensory learning benefits and children’s pride in presenting memorized signs creates credible third-party validation that complements quantitative traction.
• Demonstrating early institutional adoption (daycare centers, schools, therapy practices) and concrete product breadth (e.g., ~100 words translated into flipbooks) can substitute partially for detailed metrics at seed stage, as long as this traction is visible and sourced.
• Explicitly linking use of funds to team expansion, product portfolio growth, and EU scaling clarifies how a mid‑six‑figure round will be deployed, which can reassure angels about capital efficiency.
• Positioning the startup within a recognizable niche like **inclusion tech** or assisted communication helps investors quickly categorize the opportunity and see how impact and revenue objectives align.

talking hands flipbooks GmbH pitch deck: common questions

What is Talking Hands and what does the company do?

Talking hands is a social EdTech startup based in Frankfurt, Germany, that produces physical flipbooks and related materials to teach basic sign language vocabulary to children in a playful, multi-sensory way, promoting inclusion between children with and without disabilities.

When was Talking Hands founded and by whom?

Talking hands was founded in October 2020 in Frankfurt am Main by co‑founders Laura Mohn and Maria Möller, who began by translating around 100 everyday words (such as “mummy”, “daddy”, “help”, “toilet”) into sign-language flipbooks.

What funding round does this pitch deck relate to, and who invested?

In February 2022, talking hands completed a seed financing round joined by several business angels including Christoph Keese, Eric Demuth, Dennis Schmoltzi, Manuel Müller, and Ilknur Gur; the founders later described this first seed round as raising a mid‑six‑figure sum, which was used to grow the team, expand the product portfolio, and scale within the EU.

How does Talking Hands make money and who are its customers?

Talking hands mainly sells its sign-language flipbooks to daycare centers, elementary schools, medical and therapy facilities (such as speech therapy practices), and private households; a significant portion of sales come from educational institutions, and flipbooks are sold individually and in sets.

What were the primary goals for the seed funding Talking Hands raised?

The seed funding in early 2022 was earmarked to expand the team, develop additional product lines around sign-language and assisted communication, and grow internationally within the European Union, building on early institutional traction in daycare centers and schools.

Sources

Funding and outcome facts on this page were researched on 2026-08-21 from the pages below.

• "We turn sign language into flipbooks" - Maria & Laura, talking hands
• Maria Möller
• Heuking assists social startup talking hands in seed funding round
• This trio wants to popularize sign language | Startbase
• Talking Hands closes seed financing round | Startbase
• Talking Hands Flipbook for signing - Messe.TV
• Maria Möller | FINVIA Interview
• Talking Hands 2025 Company Profile: Valuation, Funding & Investors | PitchBook

Talking Hands pitch deck slides

What each slide of the Talking Hands pitch deck says

Slide 1

g * ot s talking hands a learning-tools & games for F inclusion and diversity o Laura Mohn Maria Méller 1

Slide 2

€= ar Volking hands <= Vision Statement | 4 ‘NN © = Problem ©= Solution & <= Competition : == Team 0 -

Slide 3

Vision Statement Our vision is fo facilitate inclusion worldwide through modern and user-centered learning tools. falking hands flip books help break linguistic barriers and foster early social education. talking hands strives fo promote social inclusion and education infernationally and break through barriers between people with and without disability.

Slide 4

=X Problem Se tolling hands Approx. 1 in 10 children* suffer from some form of hearing or speech impairment. Reasons include deafness, autism, down- syndrome or insufficient language training. A Many of these children struggle to connect with their peers and become isolated. d Laura's sister Jeanne-Marie has down-syndrome, which is why we know [V) the struggles of communication issues very well. Children with down- , | syndrome develop speaking skills much slower than other children. It's very frustrating to not be understood or heard by one’s environment. . Contidentiol

Slide 5

Problem One's disability must not have an impact of one's parficipation comes fo innovation and design. It's time to revolutionize the way we think about and design tools for people with disabilities. We can create tools that are cool, fantastic and something o be proud of - not dry and medical Now let's start with the way sign language is being taught.

Slide 6

The design and use of current learning-tools for sign language are very outdated. Children who don't rely on sign language will not learn voluntarily since there is no fun it it. Inclusion can only work, if ALL children learn sign languageand this will only happen when learning is fun and exciting.

Slide 7

Solution talking hands enables inclusion in a playful way through flipbooks for sign language. Our products bring the much needed fun-factor into focus — through modern design and usability.

Slide 8

= ion - Proof of Concept (13 talking hands offers a completely new approach for our children to get to know sign language. The multi-sensual experience has a positive impact on the effectiveness of the learning process. Memorized signs are presented to teachers with pride and motivation. - Simona Trolio, day-care teacher

Slide text above is read directly from the Talking Hands deck PDF embedded on this page.

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