Dr Jean Marc Feghali &
Gökhan Meriçliler
For Dr Jean Marc Feghali and Gökhan Meriçliler, WeWalk, their social impact startup, is not just about business. It's first and foremost about people. Both grew up in families where disabilities were present. Jean Marc and his younger brother suffer from leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), a rare eye disorder, while Gökhan's sister had a mental disability.
Jean Marc's early years
Jean Marc was born and raised in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He recalls the moment when he understood that he was visually impaired: "We had a maths test in class, and they turned the lights off because we had those old projected whiteboards. I knew the answers to the questions, but I just couldn't write as fast as the others," he says.
LCA generally means that you’re born with limited central vision and no peripheral vision, and this deteriorates with time. You’re born with some sight, nowhere near normal, but enough to be able to do things without realising that you’re visually impaired.
Although it was known that he had sight deficiency, no one really knew how significant his visual impairment was. "I wasn’t able to finish the paper on time and I didn’t do that well."
Jean Marc and his younger brothers Christian, Carl and Dani before Jean Marc’s secondary school prom.
Jean Marc and his younger brothers Christian, Carl and Dani before Jean Marc’s secondary school prom.
LCA is not curable, and intervention to manage the disease such as gene therapy is still in its infancy. "In my early years, some doctors thought that the impacts of LCA could be mitigated with Vitamin A supplements," he says, "and the amounts being prescribed could have been very dangerous."
Fast forward a few years, and Jean Marc was starting to think about university. Engineering was always high on the list of degree options.
"My parents wanted me to study engineering. My dad was an engineer, and his dad was a mechanic, so I used to spend a lot of time looking at cars." But his interest in transport went beyond cars to mobility, and how visually impaired people navigated cities. Jean Marc started his four-year MEng at Imperial in 2014.
A young Jean Marc and his family at Disneyland.
A young Jean Marc and his family at Disneyland.
Gökhan’s story
Gökhan was born and raised in Izmir, a city on Turkey’s Aegean coast. "I have a brother and a sister. My sister, Ebru, was six years older than me. She was mentally disabled from birth and passed away in 2021."
Ebru was my first friend, and I witnessed firsthand the genuineness and sincerity of my parents towards her. This influenced me very much.
Gökhan with his sister Ebru in İzmir, Turkey.
Gökhan with his sister Ebru in İzmir, Turkey.
He studied Mining Engineering at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. During his studies, Gökhan joined the Young Guru Academy (YGA), a tech-driven social innovation NGO, in 2006. "I first realised my life-long ambition of using technology as a force for good for society when I first joined YGA," Gökhan says. "I took a gap year and visited disadvantaged schools to introduce STEM programmes."
The goal of YGA was simple: to inspire children and young adults to become conscious and competent leaders under the ‘double-winged’ philosophy.
Teaching as a YGA volunteer in elementary schools in Adana, Turkey.
Teaching as a YGA volunteer in elementary schools in Adana, Turkey.
The organisation had a particular focus on developing technologies for underrepresented groups, inspiring its volunteers to work for meaningful causes. This gave Gökhan the opportunity to start working in this field back in 2007.
"It was in YGA that compassion for my sister met with a bigger vision," he reflects. "The dedication and hard work of the volunteers and dream partners inspired me deeply. I met with my lifelong friends and mentors, and I was appointed as the Co-President of YGA in 2008."
Left: Gökhan with his wife Nurgül and his mother Meral. Right: Gökhan with his brother Hakan, his father Yüksel and his nephew Doğaç in Istanbul.
Left: Gökhan with his wife Nurgül and his mother Meral. Right: Gökhan with his brother Hakan, his father Yüksel and his nephew Doğaç in Istanbul.
Relocating from Istanbul to London
"We recognised that software was great but that there were bigger challenges within the mobility space. A purpose-built hardware solution was needed to address these, and so WeWalk was born in 2018," says Gökhan.
WeWalk's product video.
WeWalk started off in Turkey as a spin-off from YGA where Gökhan and the early team members, including co-founder Kürşat Ceylan, who has been blind since birth, started working on assistive technology solutions. This included indoor navigation, talking books, and automated audio transcription in movie theatres. The team partnered with Vestel, an electronics manufacturer and early investor, to overcome some of the initial manufacturing challenges. WeWalk became the latest outcome of these endeavours.
Gökhan, Jean Marc and Joe Alfonso (Community Manager at WeWalk) speaking on a panel at the YGA Summit 2023 in front of 2,000 university and high school students.
Gökhan, Jean Marc and Joe Alfonso (Community Manager at WeWalk) speaking on a panel at the YGA Summit 2023 in front of 2,000 university and high school students.
WeWalk is a smart cane and smartphone app. The smart cane provides users with obstacle detection and, when connected to the WeWalk app, it transforms into a novel multimodal navigation system designed especially for people with impaired eyesight. Globally, there are 253 million visually impaired people, so this has the potential to change many lives.
It was during this time that they had the opportunity to meet the former British ambassador to Turkey, Sir Richard Moore, whose wife, Maggie, is visually impaired.
They connected us to Zeynep Öztekbaş from the Department of Business and Trade as well as the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and the Royal National Institute of Blind People. They encouraged us to establish WeWalk as a social impact business in the UK. So, six years ago, my wife, Nurgül, and I moved to London.
YGA team and Sinan Yaman (YGA Founder) meeting with the Former British Ambassador to Turkey, Richard Moore, and his wife, Maggie Moore, in Ankara, Turkey.
YGA team and Sinan Yaman (YGA Founder) meeting with the Former British Ambassador to Turkey, Richard Moore, and his wife, Maggie Moore, in Ankara, Turkey.
WeWalk at WeWork
Meanwhile, Jean Marc finished his master’s at Imperial in late summer 2018. While at university, he started using a cane to help get around. His passion for transport still burning strong, he spoke with his supervisor, Professor Arnab Majumdar, about how he wanted to be a transport engineer.
"Specifically, I wanted to put forward my own project on visually impaired mobility on the London Underground, rather than a project defined by Imperial. He took me on board, which was a big risk, and we did the project," he says.
We measured the light levels in a tube station and then recreated these in the lab. We then got visually impaired people to walk in these environments. It was fascinating to realise the effect of lighting on speed, a bit like the effect of lighting on my maths exam back at school.
This research was awarded the Walter Redlich Prize for academic excellence. Jean Marc was then encouraged to pursue his PhD, providing further opportunities to extend his research. Right at the start of the PhD, he attended a hackathon event with his research group in London.
"In preparation for the event, we were doing research on technologies for visually impaired people. One of the things that was always on my mind was why no one had looked at the cane," he says. It was here that Jean Marc came across the team from WeWalk.
Team photo from WeWalk’s Annual Review Meeting 2022 in İğneada, Turkey.
Team photo from WeWalk’s Annual Review Meeting 2022 in İğneada, Turkey.
"Back then, there was just a registered office for WeWalk at WeWork," he says. "There was nothing to tell me how to call the team. The WeWork receptionist initially didn’t get what I was talking about; she thought I wanted to rent office space!" Eventually, she was able to put Jean Marc in touch with Gökhan.
Jean Marc describes their meeting as "one of the best things that’s ever happened."
The evening that Jean Marc proposed to his partner, Stephanie, in Windsor.
Gökhan and his wife Nurgül near the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey.
Partnering for long-term success
In November 2018, Jean Marc joined WeWalk as Head of Research & Development. Professor Washington Yotto Ochieng, Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and former Head of Imperial’s Centre for Transport Studies, was an early supporter, deepening the ties between the institution and the company.
Professor Washington Yotto Ochieng with WeWalk and Imperial team members at the Skempton Building.
Professor Washington Yotto Ochieng with WeWalk and Imperial team members at the Skempton Building.
Since 2019, the business has reached thousands of users in over 59 countries and grown to over 18 team members. It raised £600,000 of seed investment in 2020 and pre-series A funding of £2 million in 2022. In addition to its existing investors, institutional investors such as Nesta Impact Investments, KHP Ventures, and APY Ventures joined WeWalk’s journey. These efforts have led to WeWalk’s recognition as a TIME Best Invention, Amazon’s Startup of the Year, and an Edison Gold Award winner.
WeWalk is more than a product; it’s a shared vision for a more inclusive world. By blending rigorous research with real-world needs, we have developed a smart cane that helps visually impaired people actively participate in society. Thousands of WeWalk users already express how our smart cane has enabled them to live fuller lives.
Gökhan and Jean Marc receiving the Technology Innovation Pioneer Award in Abu Dhabi.
Gökhan and Jean Marc receiving the Technology Innovation Pioneer Award in Abu Dhabi.
As WeWalk develops its product range, it is working with Microsoft and Imperial on adopting AI algorithms, and the Royal National Institute of Blind People on user testing and ergonomics.
"As we work towards creating the next big thing, we want to be very, very careful. So many companies just push stuff out without checking it properly. We wanted to involve our community in every step, co-designing with our users to ensure that we deliver a product that truly enhances their lives."
WeWalk, Imperial College London and Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) partnership.
The award
Encouraged by Jean Marc, Gökhan embarked on his own Imperial College journey through an MSc in Business Analytics which he completed in 2022. The programme provided an applied understanding of state-of-the-art AI algorithms and Machine Learning technologies which are empowering features such as AI Mobility at WeWalk.
It was the same year that Jean Marc finished his PhD in Civil Engineering, delivering a highly novel and impactful thesis on the mobility requirements of visually impaired people. Remarkably and unusually, Jean Marc attained the highest successful completion level without any corrections. His work earned him the Imperial College Medal for Outstanding Achievement and contributes to WeWalk’s rigorous research and development processes.
And how do they feel about the award?
"We're not very good at giving each other credit, but it’s fair to say that we all worked really hard on this," Jean Marc says. "While we were working full-time for WeWalk, we were also studying. You can imagine what our weekends were like!"
Team photo at WeWalk’s Istanbul Office.
Team photo at WeWalk’s Istanbul Office.
"But we never felt alone on this journey. As Helen Keller famously said: ‘Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much!’" Gökhan continues. "Every success story is one of succeeding together, this includes our team, our families, our community, and the College."
It’s truly motivating that an institution that we’ve dedicated many years of our lives to recognises us in this way. It symbolises years of development and partnerships, reflecting our unwavering commitment to our visually impaired community. This is a testament to the transformative power of technology for good.
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