Education Technology · Profile from Education Technology Research Companion
Speak (Speakeasy Labs, Inc.)
The San Francisco-based AI speaking tutor that launched first in South Korea rather than the US, built its product around learners talking out loud to software instead of tapping answers, became an early showcase company for OpenAI (whose Startup Fund led its 2022 Series B), and reached a $1bn valuation in an Accel-led $78m Series C in December 2024.
At a glance
- Founded
- 2016, San Francisco (as Speakeasy Labs)
- Founders
- Connor Zwick (CEO) and Andrew Hsu (CTO), both former Thiel Fellows
- Headquarters
- San Francisco, California; operating teams in Seoul and Tokyo (reported; verify current footprint)
- Ownership / structure
- Private, venture-backed US company; investors include OpenAI Startup Fund, Accel, Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund, Buckley Ventures, Y Combinator and angels
- Leadership (2026)
- Connor Zwick, co-founder and CEO; Andrew Hsu, co-founder and CTO (verify titles)
- Segment and buyer
- Consumer language learning (mainly adult learners of English in Asia; English speakers learning Spanish and other languages since 2024); paid by the individual learner by subscription; a smaller B2B line (Speak for Business) paid by employers
- Scale
- 10m+ downloads (company, 2024); 1bn+ sentences spoken in 2024 (company); 200+ business customers (company, December 2024); "well over 100,000" subscribers in Korea by 2023 (reported); revenue not disclosed, described as "eight-figure" in 2024 press (reported); active users not disclosed
- Capital raised / valuation
- ~$162m total raised (company, December 2024); $1bn post-money valuation in the $78m Series C (December 2024); $500m in the June 2024 Series B extension
- Signature moves
- Korea-first launch (2019); OpenAI Startup Fund-led $27m Series B (2022); GPT-4 / Whisper-based open-ended conversation tutor (2023); US and Spanish-course expansion (2023–24); Speak for Business (2024); unicorn Series C led by Accel (2024). Misses and open questions: slow progress outside East Asia; undisclosed retention and efficacy data; exposure to general-purpose voice AI from OpenAI itself
8 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2016
Founding and Speech First Thesis
Launch / founding
2019
Korea First Launch
Launch / market entry
2022
Japan and Asia Expansion
Geographic expansion / launch
2022
OpenAI Startup Fund Series B
Funding round / strategic partnership
2023
GPT4 Conversation Tutor
AI launch
2024
Accel Series C Unicorn Round
Funding round
2024
Speak for Business
Launch (B2B product)
2024
US Launch and Spanish Course
Launch / market entry (new target language and home market)