Fluently Uses AI to Enhance English Fluency for Near-Native Speakers

Fluently Uses AI to Enhance English Fluency for Near-Native Speakers
Image credit: Fluently website 

Inspired by their own experiences, Stan Beliaev and Yurii Rebryk founded Fluently to help near-native English speakers improve their fluency. Despite a wealth of resources for learning English, there's a gap for those seeking advanced proficiency. Fluently, leveraging AI, acts as a coach that provides feedback and tips on spoken English, differentiating itself from other AI speech tutors by focusing on real-life calls.

Fluently records and transcribes users' sides of real-life calls, such as Zoom meetings. Users can also practice with AI coaches "Ryan" for daily conversations or "Kyle" for mock interviews, aiding those aiming for advanced English skills, especially for job opportunities. The potential market includes 84 million non-native employees in English-speaking environments, a niche that Fluently aims to capture, setting it apart from the broader ESL market.

Fluently's innovative approach earned it a spot in Y Combinator’s winter 2024 batch and secured a $2 million seed round from Pioneer Fund, SID Venture Partners, and individual angels. The startup's strong technical foundation, with three engineers out of a team of four, and backgrounds in machine learning and internships at tech giants like Amazon, Google, and Nvidia, further bolstered investor confidence.

The founders' personal need for the product gives them unique insights. Fluently prioritizes understandability over accent, focusing on pronunciation, grammar, pace, and vocabulary. It aims to provide rephrasing advice similar to Grammarly for writing. Although still in beta and prone to crashes, Fluently already offers valuable feedback, with a planned subscription price of $25 per month.

Privacy concerns are addressed through local storage, encryption, and anonymized data for third-party providers. Initially available only on MacOS, Fluently is developing a Chrome extension and building a waiting list for users. The seed round will also fund additional hires and marketing efforts. Fluently seeks to enhance user engagement through features like progress tracking and gamification, inspired by platforms like Duolingo.