Trends
Language learning app Speak nets $20M, doubles valuation
OUR TAKE Speak’s fundraising success and valuation doubling reflect investors’ high level of trust in its business model and market potential. This will not only help the company further expand its services and technology, but also attract more talented people to join and drive its global growth and…
Headline
OUR TAKE Speak’s fundraising success and valuation doubling reflect investors’ high level of trust in its business model and market potential. This will not only help the company further expand its services and technology, but also attract more talented people to join and drive…
Context
OUR TAKE Speak’s fundraising success and valuation doubling reflect investors’ high level of trust in its business model and market potential. This will not only help the company further expand its services and technology, but also attract more talented people to join and drive its global growth and influence. –Revel Cheng, BTW reporter AI-powered language learning app Speak is on a tear.
Evidence
Pending intelligence enrichment.
Analysis
Since launching in its inaugural market of South Korea in 2019, Speak has grown to over 10 million users, CEO and co-founder Connor Zwick said. Its user base has doubled every year for the last five years, and Speak now has customers in more than 40 countries. The company this week closed a $20 million Series B extension led by Buckley Ventures , with participation from the OpenAI Startup Fund, Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham, and LinkedIn executive chairman, Jeff Weiner. The capital injection brings Speak’s total raised to $84 million and doubles the startup’s valuation to half-a-billion dollars. Speak, launched in 2014 by Zwick and Andrew Hsu, who met while at the Thiel Fellowship, is designed to teach language by having users learn speaking patterns and practice repetition in crafted lessons rather than memorize vocabulary and grammar. In this way, it’s not dissimilar to Duolingo, particularly Duolingo’s newer generative AI features. But true to its namesake verb, Speak emphasizes verbalizing above all else. Also read: Who is Dan Romero? Former Coinbase VP, co-founder of Farcaster, advocates for decentralised social networks
Key Points
- Speak, a language learning app, netted $20 million and doubled in valuation.
- Spead is designed to teach language by having users learn speaking patterns and practice repetition in crafted lessons rather than memorize vocabulary and grammar.
Actions
Pending intelligence enrichment.
