A Pretoria Startup Just Merged With a US Company to Take On Hearing Loss Worldwide

Most stories about African tech companies "going global" involve a foreign company buying the African one outright. The story of hearX is different, and that difference is exactly what makes it worth telling. hearX started life in 2015 as a spinout from the University of Pretoria, built around a deceptively simple idea, what if you could test someone's hearing using nothing more than a smartphone, instead of requiring a soundproof booth and a trained audiologist on site. That early focus on mobile based hearing diagnostics eventually led the company to launch Lexie Hearing in 2020, an over the counter hearing aid brand built with Bose, designed to be affordable enough and simple enough that people could buy it directly online or in retail stores, no prescription or clinic visit required. Lexie's mix of quality and accessibility earned hearX a spot on TIME's list of the 100 Most Influential Companies in 2023, a rare honour for a South African startup. On the other ...