Built on experience.
Focused on the future of education.
Caimber represents a renaissance in literacy product development combining artificial intelligence, speech recognition, data analysis, and linguistics with the latest user experience research.
The Caimber team has developed a broad range of award-winning products
The Caimber team has contributed to a broad range of projects, including the development of Pearson's Versant test in English, Spanish, and French—the first fully computerized spoken language test powered by speech recognition technology. Today, more than three million Versant tests are administered annually around the world.
Our past work also includes creating industry-specific assessments such as aviation language tests compliant with ICAO standards and a Dutch language assessment used by immigration authorities. The team has extensive experience with high-stakes language assessments, including the Pearson Test of English for university admissions, as well as K–12 language assessment tools like TELL and Azella.
In 2018, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) utilized Caimber's automatic speech analysis and scoring system to evaluate oral reading fluency (ORF). The system transcribed students' read-aloud recordings, aligned transcripts with the source text, and computed key metrics such as reading rate and accuracy, automatically scoring elements like word reading and phonological decoding.
Additionally, the team has contributed to literacy products for the consumer market, collaborating with Leapfrog and DMAI. Notably, DMAI's Animal Island Learning Adventures received multiple honors, including the Edison Award, the Cannes Neuron Award, and the Mom's Choice Award.
The Team
Karen Chiang - President
Karen has served in numerous management roles for education, publishing, and language and talent assessment over the last 30 years. In addition to Karen’s work in the U.S., she has extensive international experience in APAC, Latin America, and Europe. Her strong beliefs in education as a catalyst for change have led her to positions for educational institutions, publishing, e-learning, consumer products, and talent assessment and development for diverse companies including Cengage, Pearson, LeapFrog, Ordinate, DMAI and Alelo. She has contributed to several award-winning products and programs in language learning, reading, and early literacy. She has a BA from the University of Massachusetts and a MA in Education from the University of Pennsylvania.
Matt Serrano - CEO
Matt has worked in technology for over 20 years, developing software and leading teams in the worlds of recruitment, marketing, fintech, and education. His first foray into artificial intelligence and education was at Ordinate Corporation (later acquired by Harcourt Assessment and then Pearson) where he managed the technology for a language learning and assessment platform that used automatic speech recognition (ASR) and machine learning (ML) for education, talent acquisition, immigration, and defense research. Matt then went on to co-found Aplos Software, a SaaS platform providing fintech products to nonprofits and NGOs, where he served as the CTO until the successful acquisition by Alpine SG. Most recently, Matt became co-owner of Analytic Measures, Inc., which led to founding Caimber, the next generation of AI-powered educational technology. He received his BA in English from Santa Clara University.
Kevin Watson - CTOO (Technical Operations)
Kevin has 30 years of direct technical experience at various hardware and software organizations in the Silicon Valley area, from startups to Fortune 100 companies, including Seagate, Legato/EMC, Kyphon/Medtronic, NOAA, Simply Continuous, Toyota, Pearson, Aplos Software, and Analytic Measures, Inc. Kevin has a proven track record as a founder and entrepreneur of an IT and software consultancy, as well as recently co-founding and serving as CTOO of Aplos Software, a SaaS platform providing fintech products to nonprofits and NGOs. Kevin has served on the boards of multiple nonprofits directly supporting education and technology. He studied Physics and Mathematics at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Our advisors
Jared Bernstein
Sr. Staff Research Scientist, Google LLC
Dennis Ciancio
President & Founder, SignalPoint Research
David Rubin
Independent Advisor
John Sabatini
Distinguished Research Professor, The University of Memphis