Funding to help Lucida AI amplify its global voice

A London-based speech-to-speech language learning platform has secured fresh investment to accelerate its global expansion.

Lucida AI has raised $7m in a seed funding round led by UK-based Velocity Capital, with participation from Next Tier Ventures, Look AI Ventures, Bogazici Ventures, Yapı Kredi Frwrd Ventures and Ünlü & Co.

The latest funding follows a $1.25 million pre-seed investment, taking the company’s total funding to $8.25 million.

The platform enables users to hold natural, real-time conversations with AI, providing instant feedback on fluency, pronunciation and clarity. 

It is designed to support both everyday communication and business interactions, with mobile access for individuals and secure deployment options for enterprise customers.

Since launching 15 months ago, Lucida AI says it has attracted more than three million users worldwide and generated over 2.2 billion minutes of spoken interaction across Europe, the United States and emerging markets.

Bosses say they plan to use the funding to expand into new languages and markets, further develop its proprietary speech-to-speech AI platform, grow its enterprise offering and accelerate product development.

Mustafa Girgin and M. Sait Demirci, co-founders of Lucida AI, said: “AI is becoming a global race, and meaningful innovation is no longer tied to a single geography. 

“With this round, we’ve partnered with investors who share our long-term vision. 

“Our focus is clear: building a scalable, speech-native AI platform that powers global communication.” 

Thomas Lindup, chief operating officer at Velocity Capital, added: “Lucida AI possesses the characteristics of the types of businesses that the Velocity EIS Technology Fund looks to invest in: a strong management team; capital efficiency; data-driven; international application; significant growth in a growing market, with a broad and mixed customer base.

“We are delighted to join the team on their journey.”

Angelo Burgarello, partner at Look AI Ventures, added: “We invested in Lucida because of the team’s speed and a vision we found genuinely ambitious: making high-quality spoken-language practice accessible.

“The company aims to disrupt the LLM wrappers currently available, as none can provide the same level of reliability.

“Lucida is building a speech-native learning platform with real-time conversation and a phonetic engine that provides more accurate pronunciation feedback than generic AI tutors.

“With a seven-digit ARR, it’s on a clear path to becoming a category-defining company in AI-powered communication.”

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