Development of a business plan and market entry strategy for CLEAR Global’s voice data activities

Development of a business plan and market entry strategy for CLEAR Global’s voice data activities

Terms of reference

Location: Remote (home based)

Travel: None

Reporting to: CLEAR Global TWB Voice Product Lead

Timeframe: April 2026-June 2026, with flexibility for extension into July for exceptional candidates

Deadline for applications: 8 May 2026


Background

Almost half the world’s population, 3.7 billion people, do not speak a “major” language. Language technology and large language models are evolving rapidly, yet only a fraction of the world’s 7,000 languages are meaningfully online. While AI and language technologies are advancing rapidly, most voice-enabled systems - including speech technologies such as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Text-to-Speech (TTS) - primarily support dominant languages, limiting access for marginalized and low-literacy communities.

A key barrier to inclusive voice technology is the lack of high-quality, ethically-collected voice data in low-resource languages. Developing effective voice-enabled services requires large, diverse, and well-annotated speech datasets, which are scarce for most of the world’s languages.

While several organizations have initiated efforts to create voice datasets, through localized community drives or dedicated platforms, challenges such as cost, lack of engagement, and inability to replicate these efforts have resulted in disjointed initiatives.

CLEAR Global has initiated multiple activities to address this lack of voice data. This includes through: 

1. Design, development and deployment of a voice data collection tool, TWB Voice
2. Gathering and transcribing conversational audio in low-resource languages within the TWB Voice platform. In 2025, CLEAR Global collected its first speech datasets in TWB Voice in Hausa, Kanuri, and Shuwa Arabic with the aim to enable voice-based tools and services to support conflict-affected communities in northeast Nigeria. We are building on this work in 2026, to collect speech data in 10 further languages spoken by communities affected by crisis in multiple countries, with the ambition to continue to scale this work to further languages and contexts.

The TWB Voice platform and voice data collection services complement CLEAR Global’s broader service offering, including a suite of language services, supported by the Translators without Borders community of over 200,000 contributors, research with communities on language use and needs, and analysis of language use data to inform language-inclusive programming and support language-informed decision making.

To date, CLEAR Global’s work on the development of the TWB Voice platform and associated voice data collection initiatives has been primarily supported through grant funding and service agreements with partners.

In the current phase of the TWB Voice program, CLEAR Global has undertaken a range of preparatory activities to inform its future direction. These include:

• User research, involving key informant interviews and co-design workshops to better understand the needs, challenges, and priorities of potential platform users, with a particular focus on organizations engaged in voice data collection for low-resource languages
• Market research, aimed at assessing the broader ecosystem, including demand, key actors, and funding dynamics. This has included consultations with organizations specializing in voice data collection as well as major funders supporting voice technologies and language AI in low-resource languages for social impact. A market research report will be completed by mid-April.

Building on these insights, CLEAR Global is now seeking to develop a feasible business plan and financial model. This will help inform the transition of the TWB Voice platform and its voice data collection services toward a sustainable, scalable model that balances social impact with commercial viability.

The role

CLEAR Global is seeking an external consultant to support the development of options for feasible business financial models and according business plans for the TWB Voice platform and its associated voice data collection services. The principal goal of the business plan is to balance social impact with financial sustainability. The consultancy will address the following objectives:

• Market Intelligence: Building on the market research report completed in April 2026, further analyze demand for voice data and voice AI solutions in low-resource languages, identifying emerging trends, gaps, and opportunities relevant to CLEAR Global’s TWB Voice platform and voice data services. The consultant may outline their proposed methodology within the proposal.
• Product-Market Fit: Assess and refine how well the TWB Voice platform meets the needs and demand of its intended users, including organizations collecting voice data in low-resource languages, and the broader market for voice AI. This explicitly should include non-profit academic and development/humanitarian users, as well as potential commercial clients. This includes identifying the features, functionalities, and benefits that make the platform most valuable, usable, and scalable for social impact applications, as well as highlighting the platform's specific competitive advantages compared with other solutions in the voice data and voice AI ecosystem.
• Revenue Modeling: Develop a financial framework that identifies how the TWB Voice platform can generate sustainable revenue while maintaining social impact. This includes evaluating potential revenue streams such as subscription-based access to the platform, licensing of curated voice datasets, or partnerships with organizations deploying voice AI solutions. The analysis should outline pricing strategies, potential customer segments, and projected financial performance, providing a clear picture of how the platform and related voice data services can be both financially viable and scalable.
• Operational Roadmap: Outline a step-by-step plan for implementing and scaling the TWB Voice platform and data collection activities, including key milestones, processes, tools, and resources required and ensure the platform can operate efficiently, and scale across multiple languages.
• Strategic Client Mapping: Identify and categorize high-probability clients, partners, and funders, focusing on organizations needing voice datasets, voice AI solutions, or multilingual voice technologies, to guide business development and engagement strategies.

The consultancy will produce actionable recommendations that support the transition of TWB Voice into a self-sustaining, scalable product, while maintaining CLEAR Global’s commitment to inclusive technologies.

The consultancy is expected to take place between April 2026 and the end of June 2026. Consultants are invited to propose the most appropriate timeframe and intensity for delivering the scope of work within this period.

Deliverables

• Business Plan
  • A detailed plan outlining the strategy for scaling CLEAR Global’s voice data services offering.
  • Includes go-to-market strategy, operational roadmap, risk mitigation, and alignment with both commercial and social impact objectives.
• Dynamic Financial Model
  • A Google Sheets-based financial model covering multi-year projections.
  • Incorporates unit economics, including cost per hour of voice data collection versus pricing per hour, revenue streams, and financial sustainability estimations.
• Targeted Client and Partner Registry
  • A prioritized list of potential clients, partners, and funders relevant to the TWB Voice platform and CLEAR Global’s voice data and voice AI services.
  • Includes contact profiles and tailored value propositions highlighting the benefits of engagement.
• Investor/Donor Pitch Deck
  • A presentation optimized for social impact investors and bilateral donors which highlights the business model, market opportunity, operational roadmap, financial projections, and potential social impact to support engagement with funders and strategic partners.

Qualifications and experience required

• Demonstrated successful experience in business and financial modeling, in the context of social impact technology initiatives
• Proficiency in data visualization (Tableau/PowerBI)
• Proven understanding of language technology, AI, and NLP, with relevant experience
• Familiarity with the role of technology in humanitarian and development work, including digital inclusion and ethical considerations
• Demonstrated ability to engage effectively with stakeholders, including technical experts, through interviews, workshops, and collaborative discussions
• Market awareness and professional connections in the field of AI and language technology for low-resource languages
• Excellent communication skills in English, with the ability to create clear, concise, and impactful reports for varied audiences.

Terms and conditions

Payments will be made as follows:

• An advance of 20% of the total contract value within 30 days of the signature of the contract
• Interim payments based on deliverables
• A final installment of 40% of the total contract value payable on satisfactory completion of the work and approval by CLEAR Global’s Commissioning Manager of all deliverables.

The consultant will be expected to provide their own equipment and supplies (laptop etc.).

How to apply

To apply for this consultancy please submit the following documents:

1. A technical and financial offer to include:

• a brief description (no more than two sides of A4) of how you would tackle this role
• a proposed work plan (including the number of days required for each task)
• a financial offer, specifying daily fees including all costs and taxes (if applicable). Please include the daily fee rate in the 'desired salary' field of the application form

1. Curriculum vitae highlighting experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) and at least three professional references.

Please upload the technical and financial offer as one document under “cover letter” and present the CV(s) of the expert(s) proposed in one document under “CV”.

About CLEAR Global

CLEAR Global helps people get vital information, and be heard, whatever language they speak. We believe that everyone has the right to give and receive information in a language and format they understand. We work with nonprofit partners and a global community of language professionals to build local language translation capacity, and raise awareness of language barriers. Our network of over 100,000 community members translate millions of words of life-saving and life-changing information a year. 

Core values

CLEAR Global employees and volunteers passionately believe in the value of this work and take personal responsibility for achieving the mission. CLEAR Global’s mission and organizational spirit embody the core values established in its strategic framework:

• Excellence: In communicating humanitarian information in the right language, CLEAR Global is a leader in the translation industry and in the non-profit sector.
• Integrity: In believing that every person, whether it’s the people who we serve, our volunteers or our staff, has value, deserves respect and has inherent dignity.
• Empowerment: In using language to empower people around the world to control their own development and destiny.
• Innovation: In recognizing and celebrating the power of innovation to address humanitarian and crisis issues around the world.
• Sustainability: In recognizing that meeting our mission requires the establishment and maintenance of a solid financial and organizational infrastructure.
• Tolerance: In that our staff and volunteers value each other, our partners and our end users, create a supportive work environment, and conduct themselves professionally at all times.