AI & Digital Automation

Charlie & Ben, 19, launch their UK-first smart notetaking assistant backed by £2m investment

Charlie Gray (left) and Ben O’Nion, co-founders of OneHive.

By Daniel Face [email protected]

Published: January 17, 2025 | Updated: 17th January 2025

Two young tech entrepreneurs who secured £2 million of investment at the age of 19 are launching an AI-powered note-taking assistant to help businesses boost their productivity.

Ben O’Nion and Charlie Gray, backed by Whiteley-based tech investors Ridown Group, have developed Echo AI – a smart bot that can attend meetings and automatically deliver transcripts, summaries, insights, sentiment analysis and personalised action points.

Following a trial period with employees at the likes of Vodafone, Starbucks, Gamma and JCB, the technology is now available to everyone.

Echo AI works across online meeting platforms including Teams, Zoom and Google Meet.

The team say it frees up participants to be active in meetings without being distracted with notetaking, providing summaries that are usually far more accurate and comprehensive than traditional methods.

The bot can even attend a meeting on a user’s behalf.

Ben O'NionBen 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 are not clear about the actions they’re 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’re proud to roll Echo AI out UK-wide to help the nation’s businesses harness the power of smart notetaking.”

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, to raise the £2 million now fuelling their growth.

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

“We’ve made a significant investment in them because we believe Echo AI is a gamechanger – 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’re 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.”

Pricing for Echo AI starts at £19.95 a month for an individual user, with pro and business options available.

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