No Barrier is a HIPAA-compliant, AI-driven medical interpretation platform that provides real-time, clinical-grade translation to help healthcare providers bridge language gaps with patients. Pulse 2.0 interviewed No Barrier co-founder and CEO Eyal Heldenberg to learn more.
Eyal Heldenberg’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Heldenberg said:
“I come from a background in building voice AI products where the challenge has always been teaching technology to understand people as they actually speak.”
“At Verint and Aircall I worked on systems that had to make sense of real time conversations with all the accents, noise, emotion, and unpredictability that come with human speech. I also founded a voice AI startup that was acquired by GoTo and that experience showed me how to turn advanced research into products people rely on every day.”
“In 2023 my team and I began exploring where voice technology could have the largest impact. Healthcare was the clear answer because communication breakdowns shape so much of the patient experience. Language barriers undermine trust for patients and create friction for clinicians and that realization is what led me to build No Barrier so we can use voice AI to close those gaps and make communication feel natural for everyone.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Heldenberg shared:
“The idea for No Barrier came together once I started sitting with clinicians across many parts of the healthcare system and asking them to walk me through their real experiences with communication.”
“We spoke with dozens of providers, nurses, physicians, care teams, and the conversations were consistent. They described long waits for interpreters that slowed care, moments of uncertainty because the interpretation quality varied, high costs that limited access for many patients, almost no transparency into what was actually said, and real concerns about privacy when a third person was listening in. Hearing the same stories again and again made it clear that the existing model was failing the people who needed it most.”
“I came from a voice AI background so I knew real time speech technology was finally strong enough to solve problems that could not be solved before. Recognizing that gap, seeing how deeply it affected patients, and knowing the technology had reached a turning point is what led me to create No Barrier.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Heldenberg reflected:
“One of my favorite moments, early 2024, was the first time a provider sent us a video of our application being used with a real patient right before surgery. The room was filmed so you could see both the provider and the patient and watch the entire interaction unfold.”
“It was still an early version of the application, far from the polished experience we have today, but the impact was immediate. The patient needed clarity before the surgery and in the past that would have meant waiting for an interpreter. Instead he understood everything instantly through our system. He even asked a couple of questions and the conversation flowed naturally.”
“You could see the tension lift from his face because the information finally felt reachable. Watching that authentic moment made everything feel real for me. It showed that even in its early form our technology was giving someone calm and confidence at one of the most vulnerable points in their care.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Heldenberg explained:
“Our core product is the Medical Interpreter. It is an AI platform that augments the human interpreter with real time speech to speech interpretation directly at the point of care between provider and patient. The platform delivers clinical grade accuracy, instant access, and a seamless experience that supports real clinical conversations.”
“At the heart of the system is an advanced interpretation engine that is tuned for medical terminology and built with varied acoustic settings and real time safety mechanisms that keep the experience stable. The platform is also designed to be culturally sensitive so patients can feel understood in the details that matter, including gender cues, dialects, and tone.”
“We also provide visual transcription that gives both providers and patients clear visibility into what is being said. This adds transparency, reduces uncertainty, and supports better shared understanding during the encounter.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Heldenberg acknowledged:
“One of the biggest challenges we faced early on was earning the trust of clinicians. They are responsible for every detail communicated to a patient so they need to feel confident in the tools they use. Many clinicians told us they could not rely on a system that felt opaque or unpredictable.”
“To solve this we focused on making the experience fully transparent. The application shows the visual transcription in real time so clinicians can follow the conversation as it unfolds and understand exactly how the system is interpreting each sentence. This lets them see the value of the interaction rather than guessing what the AI is doing.”
“We also built safety features like reverse translation and real time accuracy checks. These mechanisms confirm meaning instantly and help create a stable experience that providers can depend on. By making the process visible, predictable, and easy to verify we were able to overcome the trust barrier and give clinicians a tool they feel comfortable using at the point of care.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Heldenberg noted:
“Since launching in 2023 we have focused on strengthening the core performance of the Medical Interpreter so it can operate reliably in real clinical environments. We reduced latency to make conversations feel natural and invested heavily in accuracy for medical terminology while expanding our safety and validation systems.”
“Much of this progress came from learning through tens of thousands of interpreted encounters across different care settings. Real use helped us refine stability, correctness, and the overall user experience.”
“We also expanded our language coverage. We started with a small set of high demand languages and steadily added more while improving dialect support and cultural sensitivity. Each new language goes through clinical style testing so it can handle the complexity of real medical conversations.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Heldenberg cited:
“One of our most meaningful milestones was when an optometry network in Indiana completed its own onboarding across more than 20 sites without needing support from our team. This showed that the Medical Interpreter was simple enough for a clinical organization to roll out independently and reliable enough to fit naturally into different care settings.”
“Self deployment across that many locations is uncommon in healthcare so it signaled that the product had reached a level of usability and trust that allowed teams to adopt it quickly. It also confirmed that the platform could support real patient encounters without friction or complexity.”
Customer Success Stories
Can you share any specific customer success stories? Heldenberg highlighted:
“One success story comes from our work with a multi site clinic network called Community Clinic NWA. They needed a more reliable and scalable way to support language access across their different locations so we partnered with their leadership team to deploy the Medical Interpreter throughout the network. By shifting a large portion of their encounters to our real time system they were able to reduce their language access costs by more than 60 percent while improving speed and consistency for their patients.”
“This rollout was not only a technical deployment. It was a change management effort that involved training staff, aligning workflows, and building confidence in a new model of communication. The clinics adopted the system quickly and reported smoother patient conversations, fewer delays, and a stronger sense of control over the interpretation process. It showed us how meaningful the impact can be when technology and clinical operations work together.”
Funding/Revenue
Are you able to discuss funding and/or revenue metrics? Heldenberg revealed:
“We recently announced our $2.7 million seed round and that support has helped us accelerate development and expand the Medical Interpreter into more clinical environments. We now work with more than a dozen health organizations that use the platform to improve communication at the point of care.”
Total Addressable Market (TAM)
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Heldenberg assessed:
“The total addressable market for medical oral interpretation alone is estimated at $8 billion to $9 billion globally. This reflects the ongoing demand for real time language access in hospitals, clinics, and care networks where communication directly affects safety and outcomes.”
“The need is even larger when you consider the many encounters that go unsupported because live interpreters are not always available or clinicians rely on partial communication due to underutilization of traditional services. That gap represents a significant opportunity for real time AI solutions that can deliver consistent and immediate communication at the point of care.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Heldenberg affirmed;
“Most medical interpretations today are people dependent and time dependent. Clinics often wait for an interpreter to join a call or arrive on site which slows care and creates a cumbersome workflow. The quality can vary from one encounter to another and the costs are high because everything relies on human availability.”
“Our approach is different because the Medical Interpreter gives providers instant on demand access to clinical grade communication at the point of care. There is no waiting, no scheduling, and no inconsistency from one visit to the next.”
“Our flat subscription model also helps organizations reduce cost in a predictable way. This combination of speed, reliability, and affordability is what sets No Barrier apart.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Heldenberg emphasized:
“Looking ahead one of our main goals is to integrate the Medical Interpreter directly into various EMR workflows so clinicians can start interpreted conversations inside the systems they already use for documentation and care coordination. This will make the experience even more seamless for providers.”
“We are also continuing to expand our language coverage and strengthen stability across more environments while refining cultural sensitivity for different patient populations. Our long term goal is to make real time communication accessible in every clinical setting without adding friction to the workflow.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Heldenberg concluded:
“One topic we should address is accuracy. Traditional human-based interpretation services have well known challenges with consistency and quality.”
“If safe AI with clinical guardrails is already showing higher accuracy, at least in the highly diffused languages, then the conversation needs to shift. When a next generation tool is available and performing better in many routine encounters we should ask whether the current status quo is still safe enough for patients.”
“This is an important question for our industry because it goes beyond convenience. It asks how we define safety, how we measure accuracy, and how we protect patients as better tools become available.”
