Groupmate Technologies is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company. We build simple-to-use mobile apps for people who struggle with mainstream IT due to language, literacy, poor phone networks and age-related issues. Our focus is on West Africa, but the need is global.
GriotMate is our flagship product — and more than a messaging app. Beyond calls and messages, it provides the platform that underpins broader access to the internet and the other apps we are developing.
GriotMate is a messaging and calling app built for the conditions that mainstream apps overlook: weak and intermittent signal, unreliable power, limited literacy, users who don't speak a major world language and no credit when it is most needed. GriotMate has developed solutions for all of these — a communication platform that just works, by keeping the diaspora and their families connected.
One-to-one communication between diaspora members and their families back home, and between GriotMate app users within Africa — families and small businesses. It handles the full range of voice and video calls, voice and video messages, and text messages with symbols — all through uniquely easy-to-use interfaces, with optional audio feedback.
Signal comes and goes; GriotMate silently monitors the connection and optimises the delivery process, confirming delivery once a message lands. Users are alerted the moment a voice or video call becomes possible. Your message is held on your phone and sent automatically as soon as the connection allows — no repeating, no resending, no wondering whether it got through or when you were cut off.
GriotMate works out what the connection can carry and guides your options: a live video or voice call, a video or voice message, or a message in text, symbols, or both. A live call needs a connection right then — if there isn’t one, you can set a callback alert for when the network returns. A message, by contrast, is held on your phone and sent automatically the moment a path opens: over data, or, if you choose, as a plain SMS when there is a signal but no data. So a message is never lost and never needs resending — GriotMate uses whatever the network can carry, limited only by the laws of physics, and it gets through just as soon as it can.
A simple, person-friendly interface. Options are shown in plain text and with icons, and there is a spoken-feedback option for those who cannot read or do not speak a global language. GriotMate can be used with our other apps to open up IT, the internet and even AI to people that text-based apps structurally exclude. Beneficiaries include the elderly, small farmers, traders, and those wanting to develop their literacy.
GriotMate uses a dual-phone system. The full app runs on a smartphone, but is linked to a standard, rugged, long-battery-life keypad phone. The keypad phone stays on and automatically flags incoming GriotMate calls and messages, so the smartphone need only be powered up when full communication is wanted.
Each GriotMate user in Africa has a Helper — usually a family member in the diaspora. The Helper provides support: a family member is probably already sending remittances, and for minimal extra cost can greatly extend the help they can provide by using the app. An accredited charity might also fund the smartphone, some phone credit and provide some support on using the app.
Keeping the GriotMate smartphone and the twinned keypad phone in credit is made very easy for the Helper. The app monitors the credit on the smartphone and warns the Helper, who can manually or automatically add credit to the smartphone — at the touch of a button.
GriotMate is a one-to-one communication app in a closed community. It is not a social-media network: there is no feed, no “find friends”, and no way for a person to join the network without the approval of both the Helper and Groupmate Technologies CIC. GriotMate is not a money-transfer service, but makes paying remittances easier through the regulated transfer companies. It can keep a family's phone in credit by buying airtime from a phone company. Both are one-touch options for the Helper, made quick and efficient.
GriotMate provides the platform — overcoming the network, language, literacy, credit and charging issues. On this foundation Groupmate Technologies is building a family of apps for the communities it serves.
CropMate, an app within GriotMate, empowers smallholder farmers by bringing them internet access and the remote guidance of an agricultural adviser. Three people make it work. The Farmer — the woman who grows the food and is the decision-maker. The Adviser — a qualified agricultural expert, often employed by a local charity, who supports her remotely; he is her human interface to the internet and AI, questioning and sanity-checking its advice. And the Trader — often a young person who transports produce to market and records sales and purchases using the app, a role that can prevent young people from being drawn away to the city.
Linking the Farmer to the remote Adviser is made entirely practical by CropMate running on the GriotMate platform. Using live calls, voice messages and photographs, all aspects of farming can be covered, including soil preparation, buying seed and fertiliser, planting and watering, plant health, picking and storage, and getting a fair price at market.
For those wishing to teach themselves literacy and typing skills, this app runs on a smartphone. It can be standalone or an option within GriotMate. For each key and predicted word, it provides both visual and auditory feedback. True DIY literacy development that is fun and motivating to use.
For quick and effective translation between languages. Currently effective for global languages, and beginning to be developed for some tribal languages — including Liberian Koloqua. An aim of Groupmate Technologies is to track, stimulate and orchestrate the rapid AI advances in this area.
A development for the UK market, providing one-tap video and voice calling for elderly users, including those with severe dementia, in a safe and protected environment.
Groupmate Technologies is a UK Community Interest Company whose assets and profits are permanently locked to community benefit. We are building for the long-term benefit of the community.
We work with local partners who know their communities, and with accredited charities that understand local needs. We welcome funders who share the mission of making technology reach the people mainstream IT leaves behind. We bring the technology; our partners add the local knowledge, the trust and the networks.
Partnerships, pilots and funding enquiries are welcome — mbeale@groupmatetechnologies.com.
Groupmate Technologies CIC is led by Dr Marc Beale — following an Applied Physics degree from Durham University and a doctorate from Oxford University, he spent roughly twenty-five years in UK government research (UKAEA Harwell, RSRE/DERA Malvern), producing over 50 peer-reviewed publications and more than a dozen patents. More than 15 years of research in assistive technology and user-interface design directly shapes how our apps are designed.
Marc has more than twenty years of personal connection to The Gambia, Casamance, Liberia and Ghana. His wife Kate’s Liberian background and family networks are central to the work. This isn’t arms-length development — it comes from decades of relationships and direct involvement in the daily lives of the communities we serve.
Groupmate Technologies is a CIC — a UK legal structure that permanently locks assets and profits to community benefit. Regulated by the CIC Regulator. Built to serve the communities it works with, for the long term.
Registered in England & Wales · Company No. 17107013 · Limited by guarantee
We are looking for partners who know their communities. We bring the technology; you bring the local knowledge, the trust, and the networks.
mbeale@groupmatetechnologies.com