Our Story So Far. From Our Daughter's Bedroom Floor to Bett Award Winners

Nine and a half years ago, a 15-year-old girl was sobbing on her bedroom floor, surrounded by notes.

She was top of her class. She'd rewritten and reread her notes for months. Nothing stuck. She failed an important exam. It was like a wall of words had collapsed on her.

That girl was our daughter. And that's when we realised she was dyslexic, just like her dad.

I'm that dad.

What shocked us wasn't the diagnosis. It was what came after. Our daughter could read. She could write notes. She had software. She'd done everything "right." But none of it worked.

That's when we understood something that changed everything: Learning to read is only the first half of what people with dyslexia need. The other half is learning to process the words that come to them.

Many people with dyslexia don't think in words. They think in visuals. And traditional education, even with assistive technology, still buries them in walls of text.

I taught our daughter to mind map. She dug herself free. She passed. She went to university.

The Secret Shame

Over the following seven years, my wife Jo Lee and I taught thousands of students to mind map. They passed exams, finished degrees, became doctors. But they kept coming to us with a secret shame. They would tell us:

"I can't take notes in lessons. The words come too fast. If I don't spend hours afterwards mind mapping everything, my notes are useless."

They asked us: "Is there software that can record the audio, make a transcript, and turn it into a mind map during the lesson?"

We said, sadly, no.

Eventually, two years ago we took on the impossible. We gathered a team of parents who funded it and built it ourselves.

We called it ivvi, an "Intelligent Voice to Visual Interface." It was the first real-time voice-to-map technology that you can edit like a normal mind map.

What ivvi Does

When a student opens ivvi and hits record, something shifts. They can actually listen. No panic about missing something. ivvi captures the audio, the transcript, and the slides.

But here's what makes it different: ivvi doesn't just transcribe. It translates from words into visuals.

There's a difference between AI that does the work and AI that clears the path. ivvi removes the anxiety of note-taking so students can focus on understanding what's being said. It doesn't generate words, it filters the existing ones. The wall of words becomes keywords, branches, icons, structure. There is a pattern that students can see and remember.

The student stays in control. The thinking is still theirs. ivvi works with them, not instead of them.

As Caitlin, a university student in our Strathclyde University collaboration, told us: "I was spending two and a half hours after every lecture working on my notes. Now with ivvi, I leave with a mind map I understand."

And it's not just for university students. Seven-year-old Rosie says: "I use ivvi to understand what my teacher wants. When I see it as a map, I know what to do."

AI tool that is against AI summaries

Winning the Bett Award

On January 21st, ivvi won the 2026 Bett Award for SEND & Inclusion Resources and Services.

For those unfamiliar, the Bett Awards are widely regarded as the gold standard of educational technology. Running since 1985, BETT is the world's largest education technology exhibition, attracting over 30,000 attendees from 130+ countries. The awards recognise excellence across multiple categories, with independent judges evaluating entries on innovation, impact, evidence of effectiveness, and potential for positive change.

The judges said:

"The judges were particularly impressed by ivvi. A problem driven technology designed to support dyslexic learners at all stages of learning. Its AI powered transcription feature automatically records lectures, creates notes, and generates mind maps and visuals, making information more organised and accessible."

Making History

This win makes ivvi:

• The first AI-native product to win in the SEND category's 15-year history
• The first Scottish company to win in the category
• One of only two products on the UK government's DSA-approved software list (out of approximately 95) to have ever won a BETT Award

To put this in context: previous winners include products from Pearson, Hodder Education (part of Hachette), and Crick Software, a company that has won 12 Bett Awards, more than any other in the category's history. Their founders received the Bett Outstanding Achievement Award in 2022.

We were a startup competing against educational publishing giants and specialists with decades of experience. The judges chose innovation.

The Rigorous Process

The Bett awards are not handed out lightly. Every product is evaluated against demanding criteria. We want to share what that process looked like, because it reflects everything we've tried to build into ivvi.

Distinction and Innovation Judges assessed whether the product offers something genuinely new. ivvi is the first real-time voice-to-mind-map solution purpose-built for learners with dyslexia and ADHD. Where other tools produce walls of text, ivvi delivers visual structure from the first word.

Fit for Purpose Does the product actually support curriculum delivery? ivvi enables students to capture lectures, seminars, and tutorials in real time, keeping pace with what's being taught rather than scrambling to catch up afterwards.

Inclusivity and Accessibility This is core to everything we do. ivvi was designed specifically for visual thinkers, dyslexic learners, and those with working memory challenges. A clean interface. Keyboard navigation. Automatic organisation into branches that mirror how learners naturally connect ideas.

Parental Engagement Parents can use ivvi alongside their children. The voice-to-map function lets students talk through their thoughts, then edit the resulting mind map together, organising projects, assignments, or daily activities as a team.

Evidence and Research ivvi was developed through a pilot programme with Strathclyde University and extensive testing with our community of dyslexic students and professionals. It's grounded in cognitive psychology research on executive function, working memory, and visual learning.

GDPR Compliance and Safety All data is encrypted and stored securely. Users retain ownership of their data. No advertising. No third-party exploitation.

Customer Support Dedicated onboarding for trainers and study skills tutors. Intuitive in-app guidance. Ongoing support via email, phone, and video calls, with issues resolved within 24 hours.

Value for Money Individual plans start with a free tier. Full access is £30/month or £300/year. For students eligible for Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA), a course-long licence is fully funded by the government for the duration of their course.

Environmental Sustainability Fully web-based. No packaging, discs, or hardware. Minimal server footprint. Paperless study.

From First Sale to Bett Winner

At the award, my co-founder Jo Lee said: "Last January, we were fighting to get our first sale over the line. Now, 12 months later, we won the Bett Award for SEND! Students at universities across the UK are now being recommended ivvi Notes every day through their Disabled Students' Allowance. That's quite a transformation in under twelve months.”

Our distribution partner Aventido has been in assistive technology for 25 years. They've had three Bett finalists. ivvi is their first winner.

ivvi is also part of the University of Edinburgh's AI accelerator, and our own daughter was recently recommended ivvi through DSA.

What This Means

We believe this AI era is a special moment for dyslexia. For the first time, AI can help those with dyslexia process words into visuals in real time. We feel a sense of responsibility to make sure we build an AI note-taking tool designed by dyslexics, for dyslexics.

There are 800,000 children with dyslexia in the UK, trapped behind walls of words even when they can read. There are 140 million worldwide.

We set our mission nine years ago: to help a million students with dyslexia learn to mind map by 2030. Winning this award helps us reach them. Our hope is that you will join us in our mission and put ivvi in the hands of a student with dyslexia.

ivvi: Visual Notes for Visual Minds.

If you work with dyslexic learners and want to see ivvi in action, visit ivvi.app or get in touch at [email protected]. We'd love to show you what's possible.