AccessiWay, a digital accessibility company based in Turin, acquired Subly, a London startup whose AI platform makes video and audio content accessible. AccessiWay announced the deal on November 4, 2026, in a press release distributed through Presseportal.
The companies did not disclose the price or other terms. AccessiWay said the deal was complete and that Subly is already fully integrated into its business. Subly's website now redirects to a video and audio accessibility page on AccessiWay's site.
Holly Stephens, who founded Subly and served as its chief executive, joined AccessiWay as head of international expansion. AccessiWay now sells Subly's service under its own name, with its accessibility specialists reviewing the output.
What Subly built
Subly started as an online tool for subtitling, transcribing and translating video, aimed at creators and businesses without professional editing skills, UKTN reported when the company raised its seed round in 2021. BusinessCloud described a four-step process that produced subtitles and translations automatically. By then Subly said it had served more than 65,000 creators and 7,000 businesses, with customers in more than 150 countries.
AccessiWay's release describes the product as an AI-powered accessibility platform for video and audio. The services now offered include an accessibility report that checks each file against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and lists problems by timecode, audio description in which a narrator explains what is on screen, captions that include non-speech sounds and meet colour-contrast rules, descriptive transcripts, translated subtitles, and a scan for flashing sequences that could trigger seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy.
Customers upload a file and get back a report, an accessible version or both, with no software to install. AccessiWay's AI checks and fixes each file first, then its own experts review the result against WCAG.
“With the acquisition of Subly, companies can now rely on a single partner to identify and fix barriers across their websites, apps and multimedia content.”
Why AccessiWay is buying
AccessiWay provides accessibility software, monitoring, expert audits and remediation for websites, mobile apps and PDFs. Its website says it has about 130 staff, offices in Paris, Hamburg, Vienna and Turin, operations in about 20 countries and more than 10,000 brands as clients. It is an independent company within the team.blue group. In October 2026 Gartner named it a Leader in its first Magic Quadrant for digital accessibility platforms.
Video and audio were a gap in that offering. Amit Borsok, AccessiWay's chief executive and co-founder, said in the release that multimedia was the last missing piece and that customers could now use one supplier for websites, apps and video. When an AccessiWay audit finds inaccessible video or audio, the company will now flag and fix those files itself.
Dealroom, which covered the deal on November 5, said it widens AccessiWay's range and makes buying simpler for customers, but that a single purchase does not point to a wave of consolidation in accessibility.
The founders and the funding
Stephens, whom BusinessCloud described as a former contractor at Google, founded Subly with Keyvan Kasaei in 2019, according to UKTN. BusinessCloud's 2021 report suggests the platform itself went live around March 2020.
In May 2021 Subly raised a seed round led by Loyal VC, which had also invested in its pre-seed round. UKTN put the round at $1 million, while BusinessCloud reported it as £700,000 (about $1 million at the time), so the two figures appear to describe the same round in different currencies. Wayra, the Telefonica startup programme, the AI Startup Incubator and angel investors also took part, UKTN reported, and BusinessCloud said former executives from Clear Channel, Vodafone and Hewlett Packard were among the backers.
At the time, Stephens said the round came sooner than planned because of fast growth in 2020, when more businesses moved their communication online. No later funding or current revenue figures were disclosed, and neither company said how many Subly employees moved to AccessiWay.
Europe's accessibility rules reach video
The European Accessibility Act has applied since June 28, 2025. Organizations it covers must make their digital products and services accessible, and that includes the video and audio inside them, the release noted.
AccessiWay argued that many organizations rely on automatic captions alone and so miss other WCAG requirements, such as audio description and warnings about flashing content. It is aiming the combined service at companies covered by the law, including banks, retailers and transport operators, as well as e-learning platforms, education providers, media companies and public bodies.
