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In 2014 , Ivan Crewkov make a motion his menage from Siberia to the U.S. as his startup , Cubic . AI , was prepare to plunge a Kickstarter crusade for its chic speaker unit . A week before the run was supposed to go live , Amazon launched its Echo smart utterer , rendering Cubic . AI basically dead in the water .
“ It was a tragedy , ” Crewkov told TechCrunch . “ It made zero sense to compete with Amazon and Google ; we cease up sell the company [ two years later ] . ”
But the experience was n’t a total personnel casualty . Moving his mob from Siberia to the U.S. meant putting his daughters , used to speak Russian at home , into English - speaking school . His eldest girl started working with an online private instructor , and when Crewkov realized that the private instructor was reading written answers , the idea behind his next and current startup , Buddy.ai , was born .
“ I just realize that we could credibly create an AI character that would do the same thing if lessons are script , ” Crewkov said . “ My daughter contend ; she was our first examiner and our first user . ”
Buddy.ai is an animated , multimodal , colloquial character tutor meant to help children learn English as a second language . The party works as a subscription app that consumers can download . The companionship has also started working with schools in countries like Brazil as well .
Crewkov read that despite their background working in spokesperson - based AI , it was challenging to get the business off the ground . When they started , they think they would be able to get the production to market within six calendar month , a end Crewkov now refers to as “ naive . ” Instead , it take years .
Because the product is aimed at children , the company had to navigate the Children ’s Online Privacy Protection Rule ( COPPA ) and similar laws in other countries . Plus , it ’s a tough trouble to collapse . The AI had to be trained not just to understand human spokesperson but to also translate minor ’s voices speak in languages they did n’t in full know yet .
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“ We are essay to understand a 4 - year - old Brazilian girl who is trying to say her first words in English at the same prison term as a 4 - year - older Arabic little girl from Saudi Arabia , ” Crewkov say . “ entirely dissimilar accents and altogether different languages . We just begin collecting data in state [ where ] there were no hard-core [ regulations ] like COPPA and trained the first model on that data . ”
But the company prevailed , and now seven days later it is approaching 55 million downloads and works with more than 22 million students annually .
Buddy.ai just raised an $ 11 million ejaculate round led by BITKRAFT Ventures with participation from One Way Ventures , J Ventures , and Point72 Ventures , among others .
Crewkov say that fundraising for Buddy.ai was problematical from the beginning , and despite the rise of interest in AI , this turn was still a slog . He said they spoke to 186 investors to close this source round . BITKRAFT just fall out to be the 2nd firm they talk to , and Crewkov read that they were the perfect fit for what his company was doing .
“ We were specifically interested in finding a fund with expertise in the gaming discipline and that ’s why we are so in love with BITKRAFT , ” Crewkov sound out . “ Children regale Buddy as a game . A fun fact is most of the downloads are really made by child who just desire to take on with buddy . ”
The troupe plans to invest all of the capital into product ontogenesis . Crewkov say that despite the party ’s age and grip , thus far he considers the technical school to be pretty developing . Buddy.ai be after to engage a brain of game design and a head of UX excogitation with this late turn .
Crewkov supply that a big push for the company is to add on more languages and extend to build out its relationships with school .
Buddy.ai is not the only company looking to expend AI characters to aid masses practice a fresh language . Univerbalis another that has raised $ 2 million in speculation chapiter . Loorahas raised $ 21.3 million . Buddy.ai ’s approach of focusing on children see English as a 2nd voice communication helps it stand out .
“ We just believe that the future is hybrid where AI tutors and AI agents can really help oneself teachers , ” Crewkov tell . “ You just need to provide a fortune of praxis , rehearse day by day . We will never [ have ] enough teachers to do that ; it ’s the prefect applications to AI . ”
