Stimuler, a voice-first AI tutor for English-as-a-second-language (ESL) users, raises $3.75 million in funding

Stimuler, a voice-first AI tutor for English-as-a-second-language (ESL) users, has raised $3.75 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by Lightspeed, SWC Global, and other investors, including MVP, Rebright, Force Ventures, GradCapital, and Operators Studio.

The startup will use the raised capital to scale its in-house AI infrastructure, grow its technical team, and accelerate user acquisition, aiming to increase monetisation by over 5x in the next 12-18 months and become the #1 education app in LATAM and Southeast Asia (SEA).

What does Stimuler do?

Stimuler is a voice-first AI tutor designed to help English-as-a-second-language users improve their speaking skills. Built in India for the world, the platform has paying users across 150+ countries, with traction in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and India.

The startup utilises advanced speech analysis and AI-driven learning to transform the way people learn and practice spoken English.

"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," said Akshay Akash, CEO of Stimuler.

Investor comments

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".