Reprint of Newsday article and photo from Jan. 16, 2018

Charmtech Labs LLC, a literacy software company, has raised about $300,000 in a seed-funding round from eight Stony Brook University graduates and faculty members, the company’s chief executive said.

Yevgen Borodin, a Stony Brook University computer science professor and CEO of Charmtech, said in an interview that the seed round — early outside funding typically by individual “angel” investors — is expected to close at the end of January and the company will seek an additional $1 million to $2 million “to scale our business” in 2018.

“It’s quite unusual for faculty to get behind a company,” he said of the seed investors.

Charmtech Labs, based at the university’s incubator at the Center of Excellence in Wireless and Information Technology, makes Capti Voice, software designed to help students improve vocabulary and develop reading strategies.

The seed round plus the additional funding will allow Charmtech to offer Capti Voice to New York State’s 2.7 million students in grades K-12 at no cost through June, Borodin said. The software, developed with funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Small Business Innovation Research program, can be used with web pages, printed media and Google Drive.

Charmtech is also getting funding from My Blind Spot. The nonprofit organization, with offices in Manhattan and Babylon, works to expand educational and employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

Charmtech, founded in 2010, has 20 employees, including 10 in Ukraine, Borodin said.