Babbel, the Berlin-based language learning startup which techcrunch covered in Januaryand which appeared at London TechCrunch Pitch! event, has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from German investors Kizoo and and VC Fonds Berlin, although its understood to be less than a million euros.
Members of Babbel teach each other via an Adobe Air Flash framework. The languages it covers so far are French, Italian, Spanish, English or German. The schtick behind Babbel is that it has a design inspired by a game console, incorporating user-generated images and human voices into the teaching, like shopping or flirting. Year old Berlin company Lesson Nine GmbH, started the site only six months ago but appears to be gaining users if this investment is anything to go by. The company has four founders: Thomas Holl, Toine Diepstraten, Lorenz Heine and Markus Witte. Following its funding Babbel is now releasing a preview of new tutorial formats for things like grammar which are currently in closed beta testing. They will be followed by a tool for more advanced speakers and language educators to create their own tutorials.
Competitors to Babbel are myriad but many have a differing take on language learning.Mango Languages, which launched in September of 2007, offers ten languages.LiveMocha also features social networking. LingQ, offers vocabulary and grammar drills. Then in Europe you have FriendsAbroad, founded by former Amazon people a few years ago. The recent VoxSwap has video services and integrates Skype. And LearnItLists puts language practice into a widget.
| Website: | babbel.com |
| Location: | Berlin , Germany |
| Founded: | August 1, 2007 |
Babbel is a community-based, online language-learning tool.
Designed by a team of software experts and language-instruction professionals at the Berlin-based company Lesson Nine, Babbel provides an intuitive approach to learning via cutting- … Learn More
| Website: | learnitlists.com |
| Location: | Birmingham, United Kingdom |
| Founded: | February 14, 2008 |
Learnit lists is a UK based company created to bring together social network marketing, web 2.0 marketing, market research and online learning provision. The learnit widget provides opportunities for intelligent marketing & time efficient… Learn More
| Website: | friendsabroad.com |
| Location: | London, United Kingdom |
FriendsAbroad is a social network based on languages. The site has “millions of users†in over 200 countries speaking over 80 languages.
VoxSwap offers a similar service. Learn More
| Website: | voxswap.com |
| Location: | Uffington, United Kingdom |
VoxSwap matches up people who are trying to learn new languages. For example, if you speak English and you’re trying to learn German, then VoxSwap will match you up with someone who is German and is learning English. Learn More
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