Now in its fourth year, the LaunchPad event offers a unique platform for first-time entrepreneurs who have created a technology product intended to impact world language education.

How it works

Five startup companies present their technology innovation to a lively online audience from the world language education community. A panel of experienced professionals and event attendees provide feedback and vote on a winner based on the pedagogical merits of the product. The winner receives formal recognition in the form of an honorary plaque. A People’s Choice award is determined by the audience and also receives an honorary plaque.

Co-Founder & CEO: Ivan Crewkov

Primary Audience: Elementary, Pre-schoolers – kids 4-10

We are building a voice-based AI tutor of English as a foreign language for kids. Our mobile app helps children practice their spoken English by conversing with a virtual AI-powered cartoon character — Buddy the robot. With its engaging virtual character, speech technology, and adaptive learning, Buddy is making speaking practice affordable for 500 million children around the globe by automating the mundane 80% of tutoring work at 2% of the cost. This enables teachers and parents to give kids unlimited speaking practice, essential for mastering English. The company is based in San Francisco, backed by venture capital, and has a global audience of over 20 thousand paying students.

Co-Founder: Leslie Begert

Primary Audience: Elementary

FabuLingua helps kids learn languages through interactive children’s stories from writers and illustrators all over the world. Our unique method of maximizing comprehensible input through magical stories enables the subconscious development of listening, comprehension and reading skills while the child is engaged and stress-free. FabuLingua’s mobile, subscription-based service is currently being offered for free to help families and teachers manage extended home time during the COVID-19 crisis.

President: Simon Overduin

Primary Audience: Undergrad, High School, Middle/Jr. High, Elementary

Syngli’s core product is an intelligent tutoring system. It is offered as a web and mobile app (with Android released and iOS in development), and is currently freely available for public testing. This is accomplished through interaction of novel algorithms based on principles of learning from neuroscience, linguistics, NLP and AI; a knowledge database structured so that the order and format of content items adapt over time; and an online user community collaboratively generating and refining the stored knowledge.