Blue Canoe, an artificial intelligence (AI) B2B company that has revolutionized how to help non-native English speakers improve their spoken English, today announced that it has closed its Seed Round, bringing the total amount raised to $3. 9M 9M The round was led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Tsingyuan Ventures, which joined the board of directors, along with Qualcomm Ventures LLC, Fantail Ventures, and more. The company will use the funding to scale both product and revenue, with a focus on Japan and China.
Blue Canoe sells to global companies that urgently need their employees to speak English clearly and confidently with clients and colleagues, and partners with English Language Training Companies to improve and expand their offerings. Customers include multinational companies in the high tech, professional services and enterprise software industries, and English-language training companies in the United States, China and Japan, including EY Japan, SAP Japan and WE Education.
“It’s a lot harder to learn to speak English than to read or write it, and it’s a barrier to greater economic success for millions of people around the world. Blue Canoe is a game-changer that provides the most effective way to learn to speak English in a way that others can easily understand,” said Sarah Daniels, CEO and co-founder of Blue Canoe. “English language training companies can now expand their business and be more successful in graduate students who are fluent speakers, and multinational corporations can help their employees become more productive team members. “That’s right.
English is the default language of business around the world
According to the International Association of TESOL, more than 1 Five billion people around the world are currently learning English as a second language, with 400 million in China alone. While many language programs help learners memorize vocabulary and grammar rules to become knowledgeable in reading and writing English, learning to speak fluently after childhood is a challenging “last mile” problem. Standard teaching methods usually fail because the brain’s center for language sounds is quite resistant, and even experienced English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher lacks the right methodology to help. As a result, most English-language learners cannot speak clearly and confidently, whether they are students or adults, and businesses have many employees who cannot be fully productive in English.
Blue Canoe Marries Brain-Based Learning and AI to Speed English Learning Process
Blue Canoe uses the patented Color Vowel® System, a brain-based methodology for pronunciation training. Tens of thousands of ESL teachers, as well as top institutions, including the U, have used it. Oh, S Department of State, Peace Corps, Yale, Harvard and Georgetown Universities to teach millions of students. In 2016, Daniels and her team founded Blue Canoe as part of the Kernel Labs incubator, realizing that they could scale the Color Vowel System with technology and build a revolutionary solution that could solve the speech gap. Blue Canoe has an exclusive license to digitalize the methodology and has created a virtual AI teacher in its mobile app with patent-pending speech recognition and machine learning. Blue Canoe customizes the vocabulary and content of the app to make it relevant for children, students or adults in the workforce. Non-native speakers play on the Blue Canoe app for 10 minutes each day and receive instant personalized feedback on their spoken English, literally rewiring their brains to help them learn how to speak English correctly.
“Blue Canoe is addressing a critical gap in the $40 billion global market for English-language training and their AI solution is unique and effective,” said Eric Rosenblum, Partner of Tsingyuan Ventures in Los Altos, California. “We’re excited about the Blue Canoe team and solution that combines AI technology, proven methodology, and valuable data. “That’s right.
Olga Zguskaya, VP HR, SAP Japan, added that she is “delighted to have offered Blue Canoe to our non-native English speaking staff. They are learning, improving their spoken English and increasing their trust, and all of this is a valuable benefit to our company. “That’s right.
The Blue Canoe
Blue Canoe is the most efficient way for non-native English speakers to improve their clarity and confidence in speaking English. Blue Canoe uses a proven 20-year-old brain-based methodology, the Color Vowel® System, which has successfully improved pronunciation for more than 1 million learners worldwide. Blue Canoe scales this methodology to patent-pending speech recognition and machine learning, creating a virtual AI Teacher that provides targeted feedback. Learners track their progress over time with the Blue Canoe objective pronunciation score The company works with English language training partners and directly with multinational companies and is based in Bellevue, Washington, D.C.
Tsingyuan Ventures
Tsingyuan Ventures is a technology-focused venture fund based in Los Altos, California, which invests in seed for A-round startups in the United States. They are a highly technical team of experienced executives and entrepreneurs, with seven PhDs and more than 150 patents filed by the investment team. A significant portion of their portfolio consists of AI-related applications and enabling technologies, including computer vision, NLP, and autonomous driving.
About Qualcomm Venture
As Qualcomm Incorporated’s Venture Capital Investment Group, a world leader in next-generation wireless technologies, Qualcomm Ventures has made strategic investments in technology companies that have the potential to transform our world dramatically since 2000. As a global investor, we are focused on building the connections that will bring our mobile future forward. Visit http://www for more information. Qualcommentures Come on, Qualcomm Ventures is Qualcomm Incorporated’s investment arm.
Please note that this piece of work originally appeared in English at https://www.vcnewsdaily.com/Blue%20Canoe/venture-funding.php. As Investocracy aims to bring global startup news and updates in both English and Japanese to you, it’s important that we attribute original source to you. If you have any questions/concerns please write to us at contact@investocracy.co
