Praktika, an award-winning language learning app that uses highly personalised AI-powered avatars, has secured €29.9 million in Series A funding led by Blossom Capital to disrupt the traditional language learning market, after a previously unannounced $2.5 million Seed round led by Creator Ventures and Blue Wire Capital. These rounds included participation from prominent figures including Carles Reina (ElevenLabs) and Patrice Evra (five-time Premier League champion).
Praktika uses AI and avatars to replicate a private tutor’s personal attention, combined with an app’s affordability and flexibility. Now achieving global momentum, with 1.2 million active monthly users across 100 countries and having grown rapidly to almost $20m in annualized revenues in the last 12 months, Praktika is delighting audiences with a 4.8-star rating on app stores.
Learners interact with lifelike AI avatars who tailor lessons to their specific needs and learning styles, creating a truly immersive language-learning experience. Tutors deliver bespoke lessons based on their learner’s aptitude and learning style, and can even interact in a range of accents, including American, British, Asian, and Indian. The more the learner interacts with their avatar, the more tailored the lessons become to drive results.
Founding team Adam Turaev (CEO), Anton Marin (CTO), and Ilya Chernyakov (CPO) are pioneers in generative AI, having previously co-founded Cleverbots, a conversational AI platform used by industry giants including Coca-Cola, Kimberly-Clark, and AstraZeneca. Now they are using this experience to build an app that answers the growing demand for advanced language skills worldwide. A survey of US businesses found that the demand for bi- and multilingual speakers will increase over the next five years, whilst the language-learning market continues to grow, with the English language segment alone projected to reach $77.9 billion by 2030.
The funding will be used to improve the app experience, improve avatar accuracy, add new languages including Spanish, French and German, and establish new development hubs in Eastern Europe and the UAE, to enable Praktika to challenge existing world leaders.
Adam Turaev, CEO and co-founder of Praktika, said: “No-one should be held back by their struggles to master a language or culture. Praktika replicates a human tutor’s responsive interaction and psychological support using authentic voices and avatars. It’s a fun, affordable way to learn languages with bespoke tuition and customers love it. This funding fuels our mission to become the world’s leading language-learning app.”
Patrice Evra, angel investor and legendary footballer, commented: “As a footballer who’s played all over the world, I know the importance of learning languages. Praktika has massive potential, particularly since it is culturally nuanced, and I’m excited to see them empower even more people to learn languages globally.”
Ophelia Brown, Managing Partner for Blossom Capital, added: “Praktika’s founding team is bringing its deep knowledge of AI to create a fun, affordable way to learn languages with personalised AI tutors. For too long, other learning apps have taken students for granted and shortchanged them. The team’s determination to build a global challenger has translated into one of the fastest-growing early-stage consumer AI companies globally. Over a million learners worldwide are already improving their English with Praktika, underlining how much the avatar tutors resonate with users everywhere, and this growth will only continue as the number of languages they offer increases.”
Sasha Kaletsky, Managing Partner at Creator Ventures, who led Praktika’s Seed round, said: “Learning a language is a basic human experience, and the Praktika team has successfully injected this humanlike element into the product using AI. They have worked tirelessly on every aspect of the product, and this has translated into one of the fastest-growing early-stage consumer AI companies globally. Over a million learners worldwide are improving their English with Praktika already, and this is just the start. We couldn’t be more excited to have led Praktika’s seed round, and know Ophelia and Blossom are the right partners to take the company to the next level.”
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2024/05/london-based-praktika-raises-e29-9-million-to-personalise-language-learning-with-ai-powered-avatar-tutors/
