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Languages are taught first to introduce you to reading and writing, but native speakers learn languages by listening and speaking. Speak up has created a language learning platform focusing on how native speakers learn: Using AI, the startup produces audio conversations and listens to users’ responses to better understand the language.
Now, Speak is announcing a major round of funding that supports its progress: a $78 million Series C that brings its valuation to $1 billion.
The funding is led by Accel, with backers OpenAI (via the Startup Fund), Khosla Ventures and Y Combinator also participating.
Getting money is a big jump start. Speak confirmed that the Series B is raising $20 million for a total of $500 million six months ago.
Some of these sales may be due to the huge interest in AI output and one of Speak’s biggest businesses. OpenAI, as you can imagine, is not currently funded. Speak is using the company’s technology to operate its platform, as well as the developer of ChatGPT and your first friend the latest in his communication skills. By association, Speak presents one commercial opportunity for GenAI.
“Our 2022 investment in Speak was driven by our shared vision of transforming language learning with AI,” said Ian Hathaway, partner of OpenAI’s Startup Fund, in a statement. “We’re excited to see their world-class AI talent and unique product vision create the fastest-growing global learning experience.”
One of the main goals of this investment will be to increase the number of people using the languages that can be learned with Speak – and therefore its customers – from Spanish and French.
So far, eight-year-old Speak has been focusing on people who are learning one language – English, the most popular language in the world. Speaking provides learning and analysis tools designed around the curriculum; the idea here is that it will complement what users may have learned elsewhere. The company currently lists eight languages for beginners to learn English, based on the most popular language groups among English learners to date.
“Of the 1.5 billion people who are trying to learn English, most of them have spent 15+ years studying intensively. They know vocabulary and grammar better than any of us. But the problem is that they don’t have the ability to speak,” said CEO Connor Zwick, who founded the company and Andrew Hsu (CTO). “For us, our core idea so far has been really, let’s teach people how to do it communication in the language.”
To be clear, the 1.5 billion mark is Speak’s marketable market, no his user number. It does not reveal how it can be used by its users. As a guide, Hsu said the Speak app has been downloaded more than 10 million times, and the average usage is about 10-20 minutes/day, paying $20 a month, or $99 a year, often a fraction of the cost of hiring a personal trainer. . try to improve the conversation.
Speak for Business, the business division, has more than 200 clients, the company said.
Zwick describes Speak as part of a learning process and part of a technology that works in three ways.
First, you are thrown to listen and talk – an interesting way, considering that Hsu and Zwick met and started working together after going through the Thiel Fellows group, where you are, in theory, thrown to build a business instead of passing the years. of learning first.
“We’re not going to explain any grammar rules to you,” Zwick said of the first part of his program.
Second, you are asked to practice the new word over and over again – “especially tips where you just practice saying it out loud in other languages so that it happens automatically, without translation.”
Third, talk and then deliver those words in “real-world situations using AI … That’s how you heal,” Zwick said.
But the strange thing is that, although his goal is for his students to speak a new language with people, there are no people who can do this. All of this is done using speech recognition, natural language processing, artificial AI and more for interactive learning.
Does it work, though? Currently, Speak does not have any integration with any language learning qualifications, if you believe in the standard itself. This is the approach that some in the online language learning space have taken, with Duolingo, for example, offering English test which international students can use to prove their English skills at many English universities.
“We’re trying to figure it out no to be a test preparation solution, really, because, unfortunately, all the tests so far are imperfect,” said Zwick. “What can happen is that people complete the game tests. They try to be good at taking the test. They are not trying to be really good at being able to speak and use language in the real world. The only way to have a proper evaluation is to consult with an expert. There are tests like that. But how can we do this to everyone?”
Hsu also said that this could be part of the company’s long-term plans. “This system that we are building right now to be able to calculate and improve, I think (it) will be useful in introducing something like truth, accuracy or English test,” he said.
Gamification is not an area that Speak has explored yet, having become one of the biggest trends in online learning over the past few years (for now, at least). Duolingo and companies like Kahoot have leaned on it, turning learning into a game. New projects like Eleven Labs’ multilingual AI assistants which was launched in November could open up opportunities for more language learning and more language-enhancing strategies that could take the form of gamification.
Some of the currencies may also see consumer-driven models like this being introduced as well.
Now with more staff, “there’s an opportunity to bring more behavioral strategies into the program to make it easier for users to change,” Zwick said. But this will not interfere with the actual learning. “When there is a battle between play and action and performance, we will choose performance 100% of the time,” he said.
Ben Quazzo, an Accel partner who led the finance division, will join Speak’s management team. “Speech has emerged as a prominent player in consumer AI, demonstrating exceptional growth and market potential,” he said in a statement.
