Vocal Image is using AI to help people communicate better

With 4 million downloads for apps, startup based in Estonia Vocal image The aim is to help people improve their voice and communication skills with AI-driven coaching. But from his 160,000 active users it is perhaps the CEO, Nick Lakhoika, who embodies his mission best.

Lakhoika was born in Wit -Russia, did not speak English to his move to Estonia and once struggled with fear. Yet he won “many pitch competitions” on behalf of the startup startup of the voting coach, which was inspired by his journey, he told WAN.

“When I was at school, I was a bit bullied for unclear dictation,” said Lakhoika. In his early 1920s, as a young, uncertain founder, he met a vocal coach, Maryna “Rusia” Shukiurava, who taught him that voice and communication could be trained.

To help others, they started a YouTube channel that ultimately turned into vocal image, which positions his subscription-based app as an affordable alternative to one-on-one coaching that you can use at home. “You can make strange movements, strange noises […] And feel safe, “said Lakhoika.

With an interactive library with tongue twisters, breathing exercises and advice on gestures, vocal image also leans more in AI to give automated feedback and personalized tips, thanks to the addition of co-founder and CTO Mikalai Karaliaou, Lakhoika.

These guided trips usually revolve around work-related goals, such as improving professional or leadership skills and developing speaking or presentation skills in public. But the vocal image also supports people who just want to increase their self-confidence, as well as LGBTQ people, whose rights Shukiurava Had supported in white -russia.

While the trio comes from Wit -Russia, they were one of the many white -Russian founders who left their home country after protests did not have driven the President Alexander Lukashenko and were met Brutal repression. Lakhoika opted for his business environment, which has so far proved beneficial for the startup.

Shortly after moving to Tallinn, Vocal Image was joined “Success stories“Due to rapid growth. According to Lakhoika, the startup then reached $ 6.5 million in annual income (ARR) with less than $ 1 million in pre-seed financing.

More recently, the startup has collected a seed round of $ 3.6 million under the leadership of the French Edtech VC company Educapital, with the participation of Specialist VC From Estonia and Generations Fund WAN has learned exclusively from Germany.

From August, the startup now claims $ 12 million to Arr and around 50,000 paid users, Lakhoika said. With a team of 20 people, including a majority of white -Russian exiles, the vocal image is now planning to grow his development team and use more localizations (in addition to English, Spanish, German, French, Ukrainian and Russian).

This financing comes not long after the startup was picked by cuddling the face, meta and scaleway as one of the five winners of them European AI Startup ProgramBut also at a time when it is confronted with more competition. For example, Edtech Company -Proceeds An AI-driven speech trainer added To his app for social skills, Skillsta. But the vocal image can count on its own GDPR-compliant AI Trove.

With around 35,000 recordings per day, the vocal image has collected more than 1 million real-venters. Even better, these recordings are labeled by the community by means of speech assessment, a cooperation function with which users can decide whether others sound ‘confident’ or ‘childish’.

This is the type of data set that apps such as vocal image desperately need to improve their accuracy. It could also help to refine AI startups their artificial voices, creating further tail winds for the startup outside its B2C roots.