This startup uses GenAI to help users fine-tune English speaking skills

The story of Gurugram-based edtech startup SpeakX, which helps users learn to speak English, began while Founder Arpit Mittal was building his earlier venture, Yellow Class.

While Yellow Class was a free hobby learning platform for kids, Mittal realised the potential in the language learning space prompting him to pivot and rebrand to SpeakX.

The edtech startup helps users improve their English-speaking skills, allowing them to practice real-life conversations at their own pace.

SpeakX uses gamified elements such as points, badges, and leaderboards, and other multimedia content like videos and interactive exercises to make learning fun.

Operating on a B2C model, SpeakX’s app offers its services through a subscription model priced at Rs 299 a month. It currently has around 50,000 subscribers, with half of them from Tier II and III cities in North Indian states.

The development arc

SpeakX initially started as Yellow Class in 2020, an online platform offering hobby classes for children.

With simulated live sessions created across multiple categories like drawing, dance, GK, yoga, and a lot of extracurricular categories, these entailed after-school programmes for kids between three and 12 years.

With over 40 categories of programmes, the founder noticed language learning doing well among users, prompting them to pivot to language learning for kids and rebranding to SpeakX.

“Then we saw parents studying along with kids! There were a lot of mothers learning English with their kids,” says Mittal, Founder, SpeakX.

One of the major reasons behind this, he notes, was that "the kids were going to English medium school and were able to speak in English while mothers could not communicate well with them due to lack of exposure growing up.”

How it works

Most formal learning of a language begins with writing alphabets and building up from there. SpeakX, however, tries to impart the language in a way similar to how small children pick up on their first languages—via speech.

There are various theories by linguists and behavioural psychologists that explain the process of language learning in children.

“If you see a five-year-old child who is born in India, has never been to school, but he's able to speak in Hindi. Similarly a child in the UK or the US is able to speak English, their first language, perfectly fine. But they never studied it, and to learn to speak a language, you don't need to practically study that language,” says Mittal.

The company helps its users practice and speak English irrespective of their language skill levels. The app provides them with real-life scenarios such as a marketplace conversation with a vendor where the app plays the role of the seller and the user engages in an open-ended conversation with it.

The approach taken by the startup is similar to American Psychologist Jerome Bruner’s interactionist theory of language acquisition which explains that children learn a language primarily through social interaction and active engagement with caregivers where they are provided with a supportive environment—Language Acquisition Support System (LASS).

GenAI is integrated into SpeakX’s speech model to facilitate open-ended, natural conversations for learners, especially in the role-playing scenarios.

AI also provides instant feedback to learners to improve their fluency and grammar. It also helps determine the progress of the learner and adjust the difficulty levels of topics.

The company asks users to look at the AI not as a teacher, but as a companion or friend. “Think of it more like an old friend, the more you speak with them, the better they understand you,” says the founder.

The company operates by deconstructing a sentence instead of building one. It allows users to pick real life scenarios on the app and then pick three to five sentences in that particular situation. From there, they improve vocabulary with the words in it and then the grammar as well.

With a team of 20, the company developed its tech in-house. SpeakX’s target audience includes students, job seekers, professionals, and people seeking to enhance their English communication skills

While the company is not yet General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant, the founder says that the company does not sell any user information to third-party and uses 256-bit encryption to protect data and nobody within or outside the organisation has access to the data.

The challenges that the company has faced lie on the technology side of things—specifically multi language recognition and translation.

Especially with new learners, there’s always a chance that they might start speaking in their first languages in between practice sessions. “If you are able to recognise that the person has just spoken a few words in Hindi and you could have helped him speak those words in English,” says Mittal, whose company is one among the many who are working towards improving speech technology.

According to the founder, startups such as ElevenLabs, Murf.ai, and Smallest.ai, as peers working to improve multilingual speech technology. Duolingo is its main competitor.

Funding and future

The company began monetising after pivoting in November 2023 and clocks $3 million ARR. It projects a revenue of $20 million for FY25.

The company aims to raise around 10 million by second quarter of FY26.

SpeakX is banking on its early integration of GenAI to move ahead in the market and in the next 5 years, it aims to become the largest global language learning edtech company.

The company is currently focusing on the 25% of Indians who can understand English but struggle with communication. The founder, however, reiterates that that is a large market for catering to people who do not have any knowledge of the language whatsoever.

SpeakXplans to tap into this market and expand its operation in the next six months. It also aims to expand operations to countries in the Middle East, Southeast Asia as well as Latin America in the next 1-2 years.

Additionally, while the company currently caters to the Hindi-speaking audience, its future plans include solutions to help users learn English with Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Malayalam, and Kannada.

It sees itself continuing with only English language learning, “especially in India the need for English learning is rooted deep,” concludes the founder.