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Buddy is the first multimodal, conversational AI tutor designed to teach young children English.This is a repeat investment for us, having backed Buddy.ai all the way back in 2017.Since then, it’s taken the world by storm, becoming the most popular kids language app globally, with 22M global downloads and 90%+ YOY growth in annual users in 2023. And we’re not surprised.We invested along with BITKRAFT Ventures, Educapital, J Ventures, Point72 Ventures, and Goodwater Capital, and a group of angel investors including the co-founder of Oculus, former executives at Riot Games, and Hollywood executive producers from iconic series like The Simpsons. This latest raise brings Buddy.ai to a total of $13M in venture funding since its launch.

Our investment decisions are as much about the founder as they are about the product, if not more so. When Buddy’s CEO and co-founder Ivan Crewkov moved his family from Siberia to the United States, he saw his preschool-aged daughter struggle to learn English.

Having worked in a startup that developed one of the world’s first smart speakers, he knew a thing or two about AI, and decided to build something that would help his daughter. Buddy.ai was born.

Today, the team consists of top experts in voice technology, game design, education, and conversational AI.

According to UNESCO, the world needs 40M primary and secondary teachers by 2030. Buddy’s virtual tutor is affordable and accessible for families.

Buddy is already available in most countries around the world. The team believes that quality education is a right, not a privilege, which is why the monthly fee is equivalent to the cost of a single session of 1:1 tutoring. Quality and affordability will only improve as the company continues to scale.

Originally, Buddy.ai was designed to help children learn English. Most students fail to reach English fluency due to a lack of speaking practice. While other language learning apps for children exist, none provide conversational speaking practice (and apps with speaking practice are not designed for children or their voices).

Buddy’s TAM for English-language lessons alone would be convincing enough. But what’s really exciting is its future potential to keep scaling and incorporating a wide variety of subjects – with the Buddy.ai platform, every child in the world is a potential student.

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2023: 22M downloads worldwide
2023: 90%+ YOY growth in downloads and annual users
2023: 93% YOY growth in monthly recurring revenue

Buddy is used across the globe - nearly half its users are in Latin America. Many users are in English-speaking countries, for children learning English as a second language, such as children of immigrants. There are 2.3M first-generation immigrant children in the United States.

Buddy has seen traction when it’s stepped away from language teaching, too. It launched an Early Learning Course for English-speaking children aged 4-7 in the US market last year, and saw 350% YOY growth.

Buddy was also named in Time Magazine’s World's Top EdTech Rising Stars of 2024, they won the Global Edtech Startup Award (GESA) for Innovation, and were the Education winner at South Summit, among other accolades.

Buddy team, we can’t wait to see what’s next. As a sneak peek, they’ll be using this funding round to advance their proprietary AI technology, mature the gaming and world-building elements of the app, and expand partnerships with schools and educational institutions.