PingoLearn, an online learning platform that offers language courses with mini-video lessons inspired by real-life conversations, has raised INR 2 Crore in a Pre-Seed funding round led by Titan Capital and AngelList’s syndicate.
According to a press statement, the Pune-based startup plans to use the funds to expand the team, set up content machinery, and develop the product.
Founded in 2021 by BITS Pilani alumni Mohit Menghani and Shubham Maheshwari, PingoLearn offers language courses with mini video lessons inspired by real-life conversations. Most language learning methods involve rote-learning of grammar rules and vocabulary without much context. Learners never get to engage with the actual language and eventually lose motivation. PingoLearn aims to build the “least boring” app to master a language.
The company’s goal is to teach languages with real-life conversational content. One needs to know 2500-3000 words to understand 90 percent of everyday conversations. This is just 2 percent of a language, so the platform is teaching actual usable language with engaging content.
Speaking about the platform, Mohit Menghani, Co-founder of PingoLearn, said in a statement,
“I come from a Tier-3 city, and had very little exposure to spoken English in my school days. You speak what you hear, and that becomes your version of the language, be it vocabulary or pronunciation. My “version” of the English language has significantly improved over the years by consuming videos and getting feedback from my friends. We are artificially creating that environment at Pingolearn with snackable content for learning actual usable language and speech assessment engines for immediate feedback on pronunciation and fluency. This fresh round of funding and collaboration with these industry leaders will ramp up our development pace to create an authentic language learning experience.”
Since its inception in May 2021, PingoLearners have spent close to 3000 hours on the app. The platform integrates videos content with language tools to improve learning outcomes.
Adding further about the company, Shubham Maheshwari, Co-founder of PingoLearn, said,
“One in four people on earth are active language learners. English is just the starting point. Our pedagogy is scalable to other languages and geographies. Other than India, we are keen on testing the product in markets like East Asia, South East Asia, and Latin America. This funding round is going to be the fuel for our rocket ship.”
According to Bipin Shah, Partner at Titan Capital, learning another language can help individuals create new connections, advance in their careers, and express themselves in a better way. “The global D2C language learning market will nearly double by 2025. We are excited to back the PingoLearn team as they innovate and create effective solutions for this fast-growing sector,” he said.
