When her grandmother was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disease that slowly causes the loss of muscle control, Riya Jain watched as her Nani lost the ability to speak. Eventually, Jain’s grandmother could only communicate using a text-to-speech board which gave her an impersonal, robotic voice that she hated.
Jain set out for a solution: She wanted a tool that would clone her grandmother’s authentic voice, so that she that her grandmother could feel more comfortable communicating. Unable to find an existing tool that could accomplish this goal for a person who’d already lost the ability to speak, Jain decided to make her own.
In July of 2025, Jain released Voice Back, an AI-powered text-to-speech board that takes a short clip of a person’s speech and replicates their natural voice, enabling them to use their own voice to communicate.
“No one should be sounding like a robot in 2026,” Jain said. “This technology is completely out there, with so many third-party resources online. And I think that Voice Back is an amazing way [for people to] use AI technology for actual good.”
Since its launch, Voice Back has already partnered with more than 30 clinics, from Durham to South Africa, and has seen over 30,000 sign-ups on the app.
For personal use, the app service is available for a free trial, then operates via paid subscription model. Voice Back also offers a licensing model for business-to-business partnerships with healthcare providers and nonprofits that serve patients with disabilities like ALS, cancer, stroke or other speech-impacting conditions.
Prior startup experience and launching Voice Back
Jain is a sophomore at Duke University who is studying public policy and entrepreneurship and is a member of the university’s Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs Program. Despite her youth, she already has years of experience running a successful startup, having found national success with her book series The Land of Can that encourages health education for young children.
Jain said that Duke’s Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurs Program has been “incredibly supportive” as she’s worked on developing Voice Back, even helping her with the opportunity to participate in Princeton University’s FemaleFounded conference pitch fest—where her startup earned top-three honors.
The future of Voice Back
As Jain looks forward to the future of Voice Back, she said that her ultimate goal is for the app to help as many people as possible. Most immediately, Jain would like to expand Voice Back’s supported languages, with the current version of the platform supporting only English voice cloning. She highlighted Spanish in particular as the next language she aims to bring to the app, but said she will consider other languages as the user base continues to expand around the world.
Voice Back currently has a low operating cost and is sustained through its own revenue streams. However, as Jain looks to expand, she is exploring different avenues of funding like entering pitch competitions and seeking investors that could help her build a larger team. She hopes to hire some technical and marketing talent as she aims to keep improving Voice Back with app updates, marketing campaigns and even some in-app recreational features.
QUICK BITS
Startup: Voice Back
Founder: Riya Jain
Founded: 2025
Team size: 1
Location: Chicago, IL; founder in Durham
Website: voicebackapp.com
Funding: Bootstrapped; eyeing investors
Even as she looks towards the future, Jain still says that her proudest moment with Voice Back was seeing the impact that the app had on her grandmother.
“I think the proudest moment for me was watching how it truly impacted my grandma’s life up until her passing away from ALS,” Jain said. “I mean, she used Voice Back her entire journey in her last couple of months. And it was just amazing for her. I have these video clips on our social media of her cloning her voice and hearing it for the first time, and just the way her eyes light up just immediately signaled to me how successful this company can be and how many people it can help.”
You can see that video here.
