ELSA, a San Francisco-based startup behind an English-learning app that focuses on pronunciation, has raised $3.2 million in a “Pre-A” round led by Monk’s Hill Ventures, a firm based in Southeast Asia. Short for “English Language Speech Assistant,” ELSA claims to combine voice recognition and artificial intelligence technologies to help learners develop verbal fluency.
According to TechCrunch, the app currently offers roughly 600 lessons covering more than 3,000 words, and is available for a monthly subscription that starts at 3.99 per month. Roughly half of its “few million users” are in Southeast Asia.
