{"id":171034,"date":"2023-08-31T17:37:27","date_gmt":"2023-08-31T22:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/08\/openai-backed-language-learning-app-speak-raises-16m-to-expand-to-the-us"},"modified":"2023-08-31T17:37:27","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T22:37:27","slug":"openai-backed-language-learning-app-speak-raises-16m-to-expand-to-the-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/08\/openai-backed-language-learning-app-speak-raises-16m-to-expand-to-the-us","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI-backed language learning app Speak raises $16M to expand to the US"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/openai-backed-language-learning-app-speak-raises-16m-to-expand-to-the-us2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.speak.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Speak<\/a>, an English language learning platform backed by OpenAI\u2019s startup investment fund, the <a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2021\/05\/26\/openais-100m-startup-fund-will-make-big-early-bets-with-microsoft-as-partner\/\">OpenAI Startup Fund<\/a>, today announced that it raised $16 million in a Series B-2 funding round led by angel investor Lachy Groom.<\/p>\n<p>The co-founders of Dropbox, Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, also participated in Speak\u2019s tranche, which brings the startup\u2019s total raised to $63 million. CEO Connor Zwick says that it\u2019ll be used to support Speak\u2019s launch in more markets, including in the U.S. by the end of the year. (Speak is currently live in around 20 countries including Japan, Taiwan, Germany, France, Brazil and Mexico.) <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been incredible to see that the learning experience we spent years honing in a single market, South Korea, has proven to resonate with almost no modifications needed in markets and cultures across the globe,\u201d Zwick said in a press release. \u201cLooking ahead, we plan on bringing our AI-powered tutor to most major markets around the world by the end of this year, and are gearing up for a launch in the U.S., offering English speakers the ability to learn other languages.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speak, an English language learning platform backed by OpenAI\u2019s startup investment fund, the OpenAI Startup Fund, today announced that it raised $16 million in a Series B-2 funding round led by angel investor Lachy Groom. The co-founders of Dropbox, Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, also participated in Speak\u2019s tranche, which brings the startup\u2019s total raised [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-171034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171034\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}