Lingua.ly uses an algorithm rooted in vocabulary-acquisition research to estimate a user's vocabulary and surface web articles tailored to their interests. Its tools include flashcards with recorded pronunciations, a dictionary, a repetition game, and categories of articles to show words in common usage. The product targets intermediate and advanced learners who want to improve and maintain language skills. The app and site currently provide full support for 10 languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Russian, Arabic, and Hebrew) and offer basic support for others. The company raised $1M in its latest funding round, bringing total funding to $1.8M, and says the fresh capital will be used to expand free tools to new platforms and markets. Lingua.ly plans to monetize via premium features later this year and add NLP-powered personalization, multimedia, beginner tools, and classroom features including a teacher dashboard. Lingua.ly integrates language learning into users' daily web activity via a Google Chrome extension that recommends reading content matched to a learner's level, interests, and vocabulary. It uses natural language processing to assess skill level, prompt new words, and save them to a personal word collection for later review. The product automatically generates flashcards and quizzes to reinforce learning and presents web content as immersion rather than discrete lessons. Founders Jan Ihmels and Orly Fuhrman, both with PhDs, built the product to move learning out of the classroom and into everyday online activity. The company operates a freemium model, with basic functionality free and premium paid features planned for release soon. Recent funding will support continued product development and broader deployment of its Chrome extension.

Total raised

$2M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

Mar 2015