62 investors have funded 14 Language Learning Tech companies head-officed in San Francisco, across 102 rounds (May 2012 – Jan 2025). They are ranked by how many San Francisco companies in this market they have actually backed.
"In San Francisco" describes the companies, not the investor: most of the money in any city comes from somewhere else, and the Where the money comes from section below shows exactly where it came from here.
Ranked by companies backed in this market and city, then by round count. "Led" counts rounds recorded with this investor as lead.
| # | Investor | Based in | Stages here | Companies | Rounds | Led | Latest | Portfolio total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Y Combinator | Mountain View, United States | SeedSeries C | 3 | 4 | — | Jan 2025 | 5,648 |
| 2 | 500 Global | San Francisco, United States | Seed | 3 | 3 | 1 | Jan 2016 | 1,988 |
| 3 | Leta Capital | George Town, Cayman Islands | SeedSeries ASeries B | 2 | 4 | 2 | Aug 2021 | 28 |
| 4 | Goodwater Capital | Burlingame, United States | Series BSeed | 2 | 2 | 1 | Oct 2024 | 268 |
| 5 | Sequoia Capital China | Beijing | Series ASeries BSeries C | 1 | 5 | 3 | Jun 2018 | 345 |
| 6 | BonAngels Venture Partners | Seoul, South Korea | SeedSeries ASeries B | 1 | 4 | 2 | Aug 2021 | 78 |
| 7 | Monk's Hill Ventures | Jakarta, Indonesia | SeedSeries ASeries B | 1 | 4 | 1 | Sep 2023 | 52 |
| 8 | Tencent | Shenzhen, China | Series DSeries E+ | 1 | 3 | 2 | Oct 2019 | 685 |
| 9 | Matrix Partners China | Chaoyang, China | Series ASeries BSeries D | 1 | 3 | 1 | Aug 2017 | 446 |
| 10 | Sinovation Ventures | Beijing, China | SeedSeries ASeries B | 1 | 3 | 1 | Oct 2015 | 235 |
| 11 | Gradient Ventures | Mountain View, United States | Series ASeries BSeries C | 1 | 3 | 1 | Sep 2023 | 170 |
| 12 | Yunfeng Capital | Shanghai, China | Series CSeries D | 1 | 3 | 2 | Jun 2018 | 118 |
| 13 | OpenAI Startup Fund | Series BSeries C | 1 | 3 | — | Nov 2024 | 15 | |
| 14 | Khosla Ventures | Menlo Park, United States | Series BSeries C | 1 | 2 | — | Nov 2024 | 680 |
| 15 | SOSV | Cork, Ireland | Series ASeries B | 1 | 2 | — | Feb 2021 | 446 |
| 16 | Zhen Fund | Beijing, China | Series BSeries D | 1 | 2 | 1 | Aug 2017 | 412 |
| 17 | Boost VC | San Mateo, United States | SeedAngel | 1 | 2 | — | Oct 2015 | 204 |
| 18 | TMT Investments | Saint Helier, Jersey | Series ASeries B | 1 | 2 | — | Aug 2021 | 78 |
| 19 | PortfoLion | Budapest, Hungary | Series ASeries B | 1 | 2 | 1 | Aug 2021 | 33 |
| 20 | LearnStart | New York City, United States | Series ASeries B | 1 | 2 | — | Aug 2021 | 24 |
| 21 | Xploration Capital | London, United Kingdom | Series ASeries B | 1 | 2 | — | Aug 2021 | 12 |
| 22 | Vietnam Investments Group | Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam | Series BSeries C | 1 | 2 | 1 | Sep 2023 | 10 |
| 23 | Accel | Palo Alto, United States | Series C | 1 | 1 | 1 | Nov 2024 | 1,133 |
| 24 | Bessemer Venture Partners | Redwood City, United States | Series A | 1 | 1 | 1 | Jun 2022 | 781 |
| 25 | Google Ventures | Mountain View, United States | Seed | 1 | 1 | — | Jan 2017 | 736 |
| 26 | Founders Fund | San Francisco, United States | Series B | 1 | 1 | — | Nov 2022 | 543 |
| 27 | Benchmark | San Francisco, United States | Series A | 1 | 1 | 1 | Jun 2022 | 293 |
| 28 | Atlas Venture | Cambridge, United States | Seed | 1 | 1 | 1 | Nov 2013 | 302 |
| 29 | Coatue | New York City, United States | Series D | 1 | 1 | 1 | Jun 2018 | 312 |
| 30 | Crosslink Capital | San Francisco, United States | Seed | 1 | 1 | — | Nov 2013 | 263 |
| 31 | Start-Up Chile | Santiago, Chile | Seed | 1 | 1 | — | Oct 2012 | 365 |
| 32 | Endeavor | New York City, United States | Series B | 1 | 1 | — | Feb 2021 | 313 |
| 33 | Northern Light Venture Capital | Beijing, China | Series B | 1 | 1 | 1 | Oct 2015 | 215 |
| 34 | Mountain View, United States | Series A | 1 | 1 | — | Feb 2019 | 216 | |
| 35 | Point72 Ventures | New York City, United States | Seed | 1 | 1 | — | Oct 2024 | 145 |
| 36 | Monashees | Sao Paulo, Brazil | Seed | 1 | 1 | — | Jan 2017 | 121 |
| 37 | BITKRAFT Ventures | San Francisco, United States | Seed | 1 | 1 | 1 | Oct 2024 | 140 |
| 38 | ACME | San Francisco, United States | Seed | 1 | 1 | — | Jan 2017 | 106 |
| 39 | Owl Ventures | Menlo Park, United States | Series B | 1 | 1 | 1 | Aug 2021 | 94 |
| 40 | Social Leverage | Scottsdale, United States | Seed | 1 | 1 | — | Nov 2013 | 84 |
| 41 | Kibo Ventures | Madrid, Spain | Seed | 1 | 1 | — | Nov 2013 | 73 |
| 42 | Morado Ventures | San Francisco, United States | Seed | 1 | 1 | — | Nov 2013 | 81 |
| 43 | Novak Biddle Venture Partners | Bethesda, United States | Seed | 1 | 1 | — | May 2012 | 52 |
| 44 | UOB | Singapore, Singapore | Series C | 1 | 1 | 1 | Sep 2023 | 76 |
| 45 | SIG Venture Capital | Hong Kong, China | Series B | 1 | 1 | 1 | Feb 2021 | 58 |
| 46 | Global Ventures | Dubai, United Arab Emirates | Series C | 1 | 1 | — | Sep 2023 | 53 |
| 47 | One Way Ventures | Boston, United States | Seed | 1 | 1 | — | Oct 2024 | 53 |
| 48 | Blue Startups | Honolulu, United States | Seed | 1 | 1 | 1 | Aug 2021 | 54 |
| 49 | MOX | Taipei, Taiwan | Seed | 1 | 1 | 1 | Mar 2016 | 49 |
| 50 | Educapital | Paris, France | Seed | 1 | 1 | — | Oct 2024 | 38 |
| 51 | Development Bank of Japan | Chiyoda City, Japan | Series C | 1 | 1 | — | Sep 2023 | 38 |
| 52 | J Ventures | New York City, United States | Seed | 1 | 1 | — | Oct 2024 | 28 |
| 53 | Supernode | New York City, United States | Angel | 1 | 1 | — | Aug 2015 | 26 |
| 54 | OpenAI | San Francisco, United States | Series B | 1 | 1 | 1 | Nov 2022 | 24 |
| 55 | Bryant Stibel | Los Angeles, United States | Series C | 1 | 1 | — | Aug 2016 | 24 |
| 56 | Buckley Ventures | San Francisco, United States | Series B | 1 | 1 | 1 | Jun 2024 | 20 |
| 57 | Globant Ventures | Buenos Aires, Argentina | Series B | 1 | 1 | — | Feb 2021 | 13 |
| 58 | Aozora Bank | Tokyo, Japan | Series C | 1 | 1 | — | Sep 2023 | 9 |
| 59 | Uni-President | Tainan, Taiwan | Series C | 1 | 1 | — | Sep 2023 | 8 |
| 60 | Citrix Startup Accelerator | Santa Clara, United States | Seed | 1 | 1 | — | Jan 2015 | 6 |
| 61 | EduLab | Shibuya, Japan | Seed | 1 | 1 | — | Jun 2016 | 6 |
| 62 | Dwango | Tokyo, Japan | Seed | 1 | 1 | 1 | Jun 2024 | 1 |
Head office of the investors on this page.
Rounds by stage — where in a company's life this money arrives.
Total disclosed size of each round, not one investor's share.
How active this market has been.
Language Learning Tech companies head-officed in San Francisco that took money from these investors.
| Company | Backers | Rounds | Disclosed | Latest round |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ELSA Speak elsaspeak.com |
16 | 23 | $320.2M | Series C Sep 2023 |
| VIPKid vipkid.com |
9 | 22 | $3.5B | Series E+ Oct 2019 |
| NovaKid novakidschool.com |
8 | 17 | $309.1M | Series B Aug 2021 |
| Speak speak.com |
7 | 11 | $442.1M | Series C Nov 2024 |
| Buddy buddy.ai |
7 | 7 | $67.7M | Seed Oct 2024 |
| Cambly cambly.com |
6 | 6 | $120.9M | Series A Jun 2022 |
| Colingo colingo.com |
6 | 6 | $14.4M | Seed Nov 2013 |
| Lingoland playlingoland.com |
3 | 4 | $1.1M | Seed Oct 2015 |
| parrotapp.com parrotapp.com |
1 | 1 | $500K | Seed Jan 2025 |
| PlaySay (Now Babbel) playsay.com |
1 | 1 | $250K | Seed May 2012 |
| Lingorami lingorami.com |
1 | 1 | $40K | Seed Oct 2012 |
| Inkah inkah.com |
1 | 1 | $25K | Seed Aug 2021 |
| PlusOne plusone.space |
1 | 1 | — | Seed Jun 2024 |
| Linguatrip linguatrip.com |
1 | 1 | — | Seed Sep 2015 |
| Date | Investor | Company | Stage | Round size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2025 | Y Combinator | parrotapp.com | Seed | $500K |
| Nov 2024 | Y Combinator | Speak | Series C | $78M |
| Nov 2024 | AccelLED | Speak | Series C | $78M |
| Nov 2024 | Khosla Ventures | Speak | Series C | $78M |
| Nov 2024 | OpenAI Startup Fund | Speak | Series C | $78M |
| Oct 2024 | Goodwater Capital | Buddy | Seed | $11.1M |
| Oct 2024 | Point72 Ventures | Buddy | Seed | $11.1M |
| Oct 2024 | One Way Ventures | Buddy | Seed | $11.1M |
| Oct 2024 | J Ventures | Buddy | Seed | $11.1M |
| Oct 2024 | BITKRAFT VenturesLED | Buddy | Seed | $11.1M |
| Oct 2024 | Educapital | Buddy | Seed | $11.1M |
| Jun 2024 | Khosla Ventures | Speak | Series B | $20M |
| Jun 2024 | DwangoLED | PlusOne | Seed | — |
| Jun 2024 | Buckley VenturesLED | Speak | Series B | $20M |
| Jun 2024 | OpenAI Startup Fund | Speak | Series B | $20M |
| Sep 2023 | Aozora Bank | ELSA Speak | Series C | $23M |
| Sep 2023 | UOBLED | ELSA Speak | Series C | $23M |
| Sep 2023 | Development Bank of Japan | ELSA Speak | Series C | $23M |
| Sep 2023 | Gradient Ventures | ELSA Speak | Series C | $23M |
| Sep 2023 | Vietnam Investments Group | ELSA Speak | Series C | $23M |
Language Learning Tech investors in other cities
Other markets in San Francisco