Lithuanian edtech Leya AI raises €1M in a pre-seed funding

Vilnius-based edtech startup Leya AI has raised €1 million in a pre-seed funding round to revolutionize language learning through an affordable real-time speaking AI Tutor. The investors included V-Sharp Venture Studio, Inventure, BADideas.fund, and several angel investors.

About Leya AI

• Founded in 2023, Leya AI’s mission is to give access to personal coaching powered by Large Language Models for everyone on the planet. The idea is enabled by Leya’s team, which consists of multiple AI and business experts with multiple years of experience in AI/ML and language technologies.
• The platform can democratize learning English for 1.2 billion people by providing them with a personal AI Tutor, leveraging Generative AI, to offer real-time speaking practice and feedback in a manner a human tutor would. Since the beta launch 6 months ago, the platform already serves 4500 users in over 100 different countries all while being more affordable than regular tutors.

With Leya AI, we are betting on an obsession with customer delight, a focus on unit economics, a relentless speed of product development and acquisition to stay ahead of the competition. In a market that is all about execution, we believe that the Leya AI team has the experience, passion, and mentality to build and scale quickly to stay ahead, while constantly improving how they get there,

Raimonds Kulbergs, CEO of BADideas.fund, commented.

Who are the investors?

• V-Sharp Venture Studio is one of the three investors this round. It is a Prague-based venture studio, part of V-Sharp Ventures, investing in a small number of well-selected companies per year. Its portfolio includes such startups like Ydistri, Advanto, Aimful, Vocalls, and Tapline.
• Inventure is a Helsinki-based venture capital fund that specializes in helping its portfolio companies with talent and expansion. Since 2005, the team has been in venture with over 90 companies ranging from deep tech to consumer internet brands, including Wolt, Swappie, Stravito, and Jobbatical.
• BADideas.fund is a Latvian VC fund launched in April 2022. It focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage startups from Baltics and CEE region investing around €100,000. Its portfolio includes the likes of Breezit, Recruitlab, Lande, Fuel Finance, Rapidworks, and many more.

What’s next?

Leya AI will utilize the fresh funds to enhance its AI English Tutor, attract and retain talent in product and engineering roles, and support the expansion. Leya AI also seeks to expand beyond language tutoring, aiming to evolve into a comprehensive, human-like tutor across diverse life coaching areas.