Blue Canoe Learning has packaged the Color Vowel System into a mobile app and games that use machine learning to listen to users, identify pronunciation errors, and provide targeted corrective feedback. The product includes a card-game activity where users speak vocabulary words and receive error-specific guidance based on professionally annotated pronunciation data. Blue Canoe’s models were trained on accented speech annotated word-by-word by experts so the app can distinguish different error types (for example, varied realizations of /r/ or incorrect stress). The company is running pilot programs with several employers to build tailored curricula and vocabulary for industry use rather than a pure direct-to-consumer approach. Blue Canoe plans a broader public rollout around the second quarter of next year and intends to validate its automated pronunciation ratings against professional in-person ratings. Financially, the company recently closed a $1.4 million financing to expand operations and support its pilots, and has been accepted into the Allen Institute for AI’s new incubator in Seattle.

Total raised

$1M

Funding rounds

1

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Oct 2017