ELSA, the premier company leveraging machine learning and speech recognition technology to teach English, has raised a $23 million Series C funding alongside its launch of ELSA AI Tutor.

ELSA's round was led by UOB Venture Management, joined by UniPresident, and Asia Growth Investment Fund, which is a joint business of Aozora Bank and Development Bank of Japan (DBJ). Previous investors Gradient Ventures, Google's AI-focused venture fund; Monk's Hill Ventures; Globant Ventures; and Vietnam Investments Group (VIG) also participated.

Founded in 2015 by Vu Van, language and education expert, with MA/MBA from Stanford, and Dr. Xavier Anguera, a veteran in speech recognition and AI, ELSA is a mobile app for language learners that helps improve pronunciation and reduce accents, utilizing in-house speech recognition, automated feedback and deep machine learning technology. The inspiration for ELSA, the 2016 SXSWEdu winner, came when Vu realized that pronunciation and accent often pose a hindrance for non-native employees in business.