Voxy is an American eLearning company and English learning platform. The company was founded in February 2010 by Gregg Carey and Paul Gollash and is headquartered in New York City along with an office in São Paulo, Brazil.

History

Voxy officially launched at TechCrunch Disrupt 2010 in San Francisco. The executive chairman of the Voxy board is Timothy Murray. PhD linguist Katharine B. Nielson is the chief education officer. In 2014, after receiving increased interest in the Voxy platform from several universities, Voxy expanded its offerings to corporations and educational institutions. Voxy software is used by universities, language institutes, and corporations in countries including Brazil, Mexico,

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, the United States, Argentina, Vietnam, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Italy and Spain. In 2013, Voxy partnered with

Pearson PLC Pearson plc is a British multinational corporation, multinational publishing and education company headquartered in London, England. It was founded as a construction business in the 1840s but switched to publishing in the 1920s.J. A. Spende ...

to expand to more countries, including China. The company developed an online English course for Internet multinational Terra Networks. Voxy's biggest market is Brazil. Prior to the

2014 World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

in Brazil, Voxy distributed its English language-learning platform to 40,000 affiliates of the

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99Taxis. In 2014, Voxy announced a partnership with Brothers For All, a South African nonprofit dedicated to providing educational support to ex-inmates of the South African prison system and at-risk youth. Voxy donated free software licenses to the new Brothers For All study center in

Langa, South Africa Langa is a township in Cape Town, South Africa. Its name in Xhosa means "sun". The township was initially built in phases before being formally opened in 1927. It was developed as a result of South Africa's 1923 Urban Areas Act (more commonly k ...

, giving students in an underserved community full access to Voxy's platform and credits to enroll in live group classes. In December 2015, Voxy received a patent for its customized keyword extraction process for second language learning.

Product

Voxy uses

task-based language learning Task-based language teaching (TBLT), also known as task-based instruction (TBI), focuses on the use of authentic language to complete meaningful tasks in the target language. Such tasks can include visiting a doctor, conducting an interview, or cal ...

and tailors courses based on learners’ performance and interests. The curriculum uses relevant content such as up-to-date news and conversations. The platform includes live instruction through one-on-one tutoring sessions and group classes with certified teachers.

Funding

In its Series A round, Voxy received $4.1 million in funding from investors including Weld North, New York City Investment Fund (NYCIF), Seavest Inc., Contour Venture Partners, and ff Venture Capital. Voxy received $2.3 million in funding from return investors including

ff Venture Capital ff Venture Capital is a venture capital firm that specializes in providing seed-stage and early-stage funding to technology companies. Headquartered in New York City, ff Venture Capital was founded by John Frankel and Alex Katz in 2008, who a ...

, Contour Venture Partners, and Seavest Capital Partners in a Series A-2 round in 2012. In 2013, Voxy received $8.5 million from Pearson in a Series B with participation from Rethink Education. Voxy raised $12 million worth of funding in March 2017, which was dedicated to the expansion of its e-learning app. The funding round was led by SFJ Ventures.

Awards and recognition

Business Insider named Voxy one of the 10 best U.S. technology companies to work for in 2012, and Internet Week New York named Voxy one of the top 30 places to work in the New York City tech industry in 2014. In 2015, Voxy was recognized as an Academics' Choice Award Winner for "Smart Media."

References

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External links