ELSA

ELSA, which stands for English Language Speech Assistant, was founded in 2015 by Vu Van and Dr. Xavier Anguera, a specialist in speech recognition and artificial intelligence (AI). With the mission of improving speaking proficiency and confidence, and thereby job opportunities, for the more than one billion English learners worldwide, the company has developed a mobile app to improve pronunciation and reduce local accents. The app uses proprietary speech recognition, automated feedback, and deep learning technology to train its AI model to recognize accents of non-native English speakers from around the world. ELSA also provides feedback on improving intonation, rhythm, and fluency to improve pronunciation, helping to speak English more naturally. The firm introduced "Speech Analyzer" in October 2022, a tool for language coaching that integrates with communication platforms like Zoom and analyzes conversational speech to identify areas for development, such as pronunciation, tempo, and vocabulary.

In July 2022, the company announced an investment of USD 500,000+ to develop content, curriculum, and English training support for the aviation sector. Additionally, the company sponsored up to 50,000 trial licenses in its global Aviation English program, developed in partnership with a top tier carrier.

Key customers and partnerships

ELSA has partnered with IDP and the British Council, co-owners of the IELTS English language test, for an endorsement of ELSA for test preparation. The company also works with language schools and learning platforms in Vietnam, as well as various corporate clients. As of January 2021, the San Francisco and Ho Chi Minh City-based company had more than 40 million users worldwide.

Funding and financials

In January 2021, ELSA raised USD 15 million in a Series B funding round to expand the company’s operations in Latin America, India, and Japan, increase headcount, and research and development. Additionally, ELSA plans to develop business-to-business (B2B) solutions for companies and educational institutions to offer the app’s services to employees and students. ELSA’s most recent funding round was a USD 7 million Series A funding round in 2019 which followed a USD 3.2 million pre-Series A round in 2018.

In September 2023, Elsa raised USD 23 million in a Series C funding round led by UOB Venture Management, UniPresident, and Asia Growth Investment Fund. The company intends to use the funds to accelerate the launch and expansion of its AI into international markets like Taiwan and Korea.