Speak Lands Investment from OpenAI to Expand Its Language Learning Platform

Speak, an English language learning platform with AI-powered features, has announced that it raised $27 million in a Series B funding round led by the OpenAI Startup Fund. This investment brings Speak’s total raised to "just over" $47 million.

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A Powerful Application of Generative AI

The OpenAI Startup Fund has publicly invested in three startups, with Speak being the third. This fund provides its participants with early access to new OpenAI systems and Azure resources from Microsoft, in addition to capital. Brad Lightcap, OpenAI’s COO and manager of the OpenAI Startup Fund, said, "We are very excited to partner with the outstanding team at Speak, who are well-positioned to deliver on this powerful application of generative AI — making language learning effective and accessible."

Founders’ Background

Speak was founded in 2016 by Connor Zwick and Andrew Hsu. Zwick came from the edtech industry, having sold his first startup, Flashcards+, to Chegg in 2013 after dropping out of Harvard. Hsu has a health background, having completed a neuroscience PhD at Stanford before joining Zwick to co-launch Speak.

The Premise

Most language learning software can help with the beginning part of learning basic vocabulary and grammar, but gaining any degree of fluency requires speaking out loud in an interactive environment. To date, the only way people can get that sort of practice is through human tutors, which can also be expensive, difficult, and intimidating.

Speak’s solution is a collection of interactive speaking experiences that allow learners to practice conversing in English. Through the platform, users can hold open-ended conversations with an ‘AI tutor’ on a range of topics while receiving feedback on their pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary.

Technical Advantage

Zwick insists that Speak’s AI tech is superior to most. Under the hood, they combine the latest from OpenAI with in-house models to deliver the best performance across speech recognition, speech generation, and conversation generation.

"We’re able to provide feedback on things like pronunciation and more natural vocabulary and syntax using [our] models," Zwick said. "We are accumulating a substantial data set of user interactions, which allows us to continuously improve our models and provide a more personalized learning experience."

Funding Breakdown

The new funding will be put toward expanding the company’s engineering, machine learning, product, marketing, content, and operations departments.

About Speak

Speak is an English language learning platform that uses AI-powered features to help learners improve their speaking skills. With a focus on interactive and personalized learning experiences, Speak aims to make language learning more effective and accessible.

About OpenAI Startup Fund

The OpenAI Startup Fund is a venture capital fund that invests in startups building applications of generative AI. By providing early access to new OpenAI systems and Azure resources from Microsoft, the fund aims to accelerate the development of innovative products and services.