Praktika is revolutionizing language-learning apps by using AI-powered avatars that utilize tone of voice and emotions.
The majority of language-learning applications involve some degree of machine interaction, such as the ability to swipe away incorrect answer cards or choose from a list of possibilities.
Praktika is taking a novel tack in its language-learning app: Using inflections like tone of voice and emotions, it allows you to construct bespoke AI-powered avatars that mimic the feeling of having a private instructor, making language learning feel more authentic.
Praktika reported nearly $20 million in sales for the last 12 months and boasts 1.2 million active monthly users across 100 countries. Blossom Capital led a $35.5 million Series A fundraising round, allowing the firm to continue developing. Creator Ventures and Blue Wire Capital spearheaded an undisclosed $2.5 million in seed fundraising, which this round follows.
Praktika’s AI avatars can customize courses to meet individual user needs, offering a range of accents such as Indian, British, Asian, and American. At least, that’s the theory behind the avatar: the more the student engages with it, the more personalized the lectures will be.
Adam Turaev (CEO), Anton Marin (CTO), and Ilya Chernyakov (CPO) were the original founders of Cleverbots, an artificial intelligence service provider that had clients like AstraZeneca, Coca-Cola, and Kimberly-Clark.
The majority of language-learning applications center on one-on-one communication with a human instructor. Turaev described it to us as “machine-to-human” interaction, utilizing drag-and-drop features.
However, no other app captures the intricacies of tone of voice as ours does. We pioneered the use of AI avatars, which lend themselves naturally to the process of language acquisition. So that’s the main thing that sets it apart from all the other apps out there.
“We orchestrate different LLMs, but we’re an AI-native company,” he stated when questioned about the startup’s use of AI. We’ve used them all, from the GPT-4 and GP Turbo to the Gemini, Claude, and Mistral. We also test various iterations of their models.
The app continues to learn, even though we collected a large amount of training data. Terabytes of data pertaining to interactions between humans and AI are at our disposal. To strengthen the models, we employ anonymized data.
Praktika’s founding team is contributing their profound knowledge of AI to create a fun and economical approach to language study with tailored AI tutors. Other learning apps have neglected their students for an extended period.
According to Ophelia Brown, managing partner of Blossom Capital, the team’s unwavering commitment to creating a formidable competitor has resulted in one of the most rapidly expanding early-stage consumer AI startups worldwide.
Notable personalities such as Patrice Evra (a five-time Premier League winner) and Carles Reina (ElevenLabs) participated in both the seed round and the most recent Series A.
In a statement, Creator Ventures managing partner Sasha Kaletsky said: “The Praktika team has effectively integrated this human-like feature into the product through AI. Learning a language is a fundamental human experience.” Praktika has helped more than one million students improve their English, and that’s only the beginning.