Stimuler, a voice-first AI tutor for English-as-a-second-language (ESL) users has raised $3.75 million in pre-Series A funding from Lightspeed, SWC Global, and other investors including MVP, Rebright Partners, Force Ventures, GradCapital, and Operators Studio.
The funds raised will be used to scale its in-house AI infrastructure, grow its technical team, and accelerate user acquisition aiming to increase monetization by over 5X in the next 12-18 months.
Founded in 2022 by Akshay Akash, Ankit Kumar Pandey, Anesh Srivastav, and Akshat Baranwal, Stimuler is a voice-first AI tutor designed to help English-as-a-second-language users improve their speaking skills.
Stimuler’s voice-first AI technology provides users with real-time, comprehensive feedback on fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar, combined with tailored exercises to drive objective improvement. Leveraging advanced speech analysis and AI-driven learning, Stimuler is transforming how people learn and practice spoken English.
The company operates with a lean team and has already attracted early paying users from over 175 countries.
With over 4 million app installs, a fivefold increase in the past year, and over 45,000 paying users across Android and iOS, the platform is rapidly gaining traction across global emerging markets.
The majority of its paying user base today comes from outside India, with strong adoption in Latin America (LATAM) and Southeast Asia (SEA), particularly Indonesia.
Akshay Akash, CEO of Stimuler said, “At Stimuler, our goal is simple, to make fluent English speaking accessible to people worldwide. This funding allows us to deepen our investment in AI infrastructure, expand our reach across LATAM and SEA, and move closer to becoming the #1 education app in these key markets. We believe our India-to-the-world and voice-first approach positions us uniquely to address the unmet needs of a billion English learners.”
Harsha Kumar, Partner, Lightspeed said, “Stimuler is solving a universal need – making spoken English proficiency more accessible with sharp execution and deep product insight. Akshay and his team are building a truly global company from India, with early traction across LATAM and SEA geographies validating both the opportunity as well as the approach. As voice AI transforms learning, I believe Stimuler has built a platform to lead the category for the next billion users. We are excited to back their journey.”
Tuck Lye Koh, founding partner at SWC Global said, “Consumer AI is an interesting category globally for us and the team at Stimuler has built a global-ready product which is seeing a strong user engagement. We are looking forward to our partnership with Akshay and team to build Stimuler into a leading Spoken English platform globally.”
