Elly Savatia, founder and CEO of the Kenyan sign language technology company Signvrse, has been honoured with a Queen Elizabeth Young Leaders Award. He received it at a ceremony at Asprey in London this week.
He is one of 100 young changemakers from across the Commonwealth recognised by the Queen Elizabeth II Commonwealth Trust. The awardees were chosen through a highly competitive process from thousands of applications. The Trust announced the cohort in April to mark the centenary of the birth of its late patron, Queen Elizabeth II.
Who is Elly Savatia?
Savatia is a Kenyan engineer and innovator who founded Signvrse, a Nairobi-based start-up working on digital accessibility for Deaf and hard-of-hearing people.
Its best-known product is Terp 360, an app that translates spoken language into sign language in real time, shown through 3D avatars. It was developed with Deaf Kenyans. When it won the Africa Prize last year, it drew on a dataset of more than 2,300 locally recorded signs. It is designed for schools, workplaces, public services, events and digital content.
The work tackles a gap that Deaf people across Africa know well: there are far too few qualified sign language interpreters. According to the Royal Academy of Engineering, Signvrse now has more than 3,500 active users. It has worked with NGOs, government agencies, schools and corporate partners in Kenya and Rwanda.
This is not Savatia's first major honour. In October 2025, he won the Royal Academy of Engineering's Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, worth £50,000, at a ceremony in Dakar, Senegal. This year he is also one of the Academy's Leaders in Innovation Fellows.
A leader who said thank you
The Signvrse team says what stood out was how he received the news. His first message to the team was a thank-you. He told them the work is only possible because everyone does their part, and that in rooms like this one he is simply their ambassador.
"That is the kind of leader he is," the team wrote.
A milestone for Deaf inclusion
For Signvrse, the award is about more than one person. The team says recognition on this stage tells the world that accessible communication for Deaf communities is an impact issue, and that Kenyan innovation belongs in these conversations.
It is a point worth making loudly. Sign language access is too often treated as a favour or an afterthought. An award like this treats it as what it is: leadership and innovation that changes how a whole community takes part in school, work and public life.
Four Kenyans on one stage
Savatia is not the only Kenyan among the 100. He is joined by Norah Kimathi, Caleb Ndunda and Khadija Mohamed Juma. Four Kenyan leaders on one global stage is, in the Signvrse team's words, "a moment for the country."
Include360 congratulates Elly, Norah, Caleb and Khadija.
Photos: Elly Savatia and Signvrse, via their social media channels. This report draws on a statement from the Signvrse team, the Queen Elizabeth II Commonwealth Trust and the Royal Academy of Engineering.
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