This is an astonishing fact. The number of native Spanish speakers around the globe far surpasses the number of native English speakers: nearly 500 million versus 373 million.
Now, Correcto, the first and only real-time, AI-based writing tool for Spanish is providing a way to help Spanish speakers communicate in writing with confidence—correcting spelling, grammar, and usage—including explanations of why something should be fixed.
The company just raised €6.5 million in seed funding. Octopus Ventures, Carya Venture Partners, and River Park Ventures all contributed to the funding round.
The team started developing Correcto in 2021, building a proprietary database of phrases, one by one. They are further optimizing their proprietary artificial intelligence models with the aim of putting Spanish on the AI map.
While the venture funds are based in the U.K. and the U.S., Correcto is incorporated in Delaware and its three co-founders—Abraham López Lee, CEO; Ignacio Prieto Mayorgas, COO; and Antonio Triguero Noriega, CTO—are now based in Spain. The CEO and COO both also spent years studying in the U.K.
The market for Correcto is extremely large in the United States and all of Latin America. The U.S. has the second-largest Spanish speaking population in the world (after Mexico), with 53 million Americans who speak Spanish and 41 million who speak it as their native tongue. The U.S. Spanish-speaking population is almost the same as the number of people in Spain.
“As we were living and studying outside of Spain and struggling with our English writing skills and using online tools to assist us, my co-founder and I realized that such tools to help with Spanish communications did not exist,” said Ignacio Prieto Mayorgas, COO and co-founder, Correcto. “It was obvious that with a customer base that comprises hundreds of millions of native Spanish speakers—as well as those who have Spanish as a second language—that they would absolutely benefit from an online writing platform. This is especially urgent in the developing regions of LATAM, where literacy rates can be lower.”
Correcto already has traction with more than 120,000 downloads from early adopters in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, the United States, and Spain, with users communicating in Spanish for professional, academic or social reasons. By providing explanations as well as corrections, Correcto helps these users—regardless of their education level—to learn from their mistakes and continually improve their writing skills.
“Correcto signifies more than just grammar correction; it brings generative AI, cultural connection and opportunity to millions of users in LATAM. We could not be more excited to back this mission and its driven team,” added Andrés Pérez Soderi, general partner, Carya Venture Partners.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2023/09/madrid-based-correcto-bags-e6-5-million-seed-to-launch-first-real-time-spanish-writing-tool/
