ELSA raises $20M in funding round led by UOB

ELSA, the ingenious AI-powered English learning application, founded by Vu Van and backed by Vietnam Investment Group just secured $20M in new funding. The round was led by UOB Venture Management, the private equity arm of Singapore's UOB, according to DealStreetAsia.

• ELSA: Short for English Language Speech Assistant, ELSA uses an advanced speech recognition technology to rectify your pronunciation woes. Its partnerships extend to language schools like IMAP, Speak Up, and YOLA, as well as corporate clients including Kimberly Clark, Intel, and ATAD.

• Funding History: ELSA isn't new to the funding game. It bagged $7M in a series A funding round in 2019, followed by another $15M in a series B round two years later.

• VI Group and SIG: These international investors co-led ELSA's Series B funding round.

• Other Supporters: Gradient Ventures, SOSV, Monk’s Hill Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, and Globant Ventures have all backed ELSA's mission.

• UOB Venture Management: They led ELSA's recent funding round and manage assets worth more than $2B. Their portfolio includes healthcare tech platform Halodoc, pharma manufacturer WuXi AppTec, Indonesian edtech Ruangguru, and Chinese AR tech software provider Wimi.

Edtech in Vietnam is buzzing, with startups like VUIHOC, TEKY Alpha JSC, and MindX recently raising $6M, $5M and $15M respectively. It's safe to say that Vietnam's edtech scene is heating up!