Fabulingua

1st-of-its-kind Mobile Game - kids "Play to Learn" languages through stories & supports teachers

Last Funded May 2022

$295,192

raised from 164 investors
Pitch Video
Investor Panel

Highlights

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📈 First version app has 100,000+ downloads, 75% of trials now converting to subscribers
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🏆 Voted Best New Language Learning Technology - 2021 Launchpad Int'l Language Education Competition
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💾 Teachers create the flywheel - platform to signup/manage or tutor students = viral distribution channel & network FX
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đŸ“± Founding team: CEO led mobile app to NASDAQ IPO + background in linguistics & psychology + mobile game expertise

Our Team

We want to make learning a new language more fun and accessible for kids so that future generations will develop the innate empathy, cultural awareness, and preparedness to lead an increasingly globalized world.

Why FabuLingua?

We enable bilingual kids to reconnect with their heritage through storytelling that reflects their identity, culture, traditions, and history.

Reconnecting with their heritage helps kids feel grounded and rooted. And we all know that strong roots grow big and powerful trees that can withstand the strong gusts of wind that life throws at them.

Owning their heritage, owning that superpower of speaking a second language (their heritage language!) emboldens the children and grandchildren of immigrants to reach for the stars with confidence. 

And what about children who don’t have a different linguistic heritage with which to reconnect?

Learning a second language is equally powerful for them, it expands their horizons beyond the immediate world they live in, seeding a cultural awareness that will make them more open to other world views, more empathetic to the lives of others.  Learning a second language from a young age has profound effects on the wiring of a child’s brain, and switching between languages helps lay a stronger neural foundation for the development of empathy.

Traditional language learning methods are ineffective and unengaging. In a fast-growing digital market of hungry language-learners and teachers eager for engaging, effective solutions, FabuLingua is the platform that harnesses the power of stories and gameplay to teach kids new languages based on modern learning science.

Memorizing vocabulary lists and learning grammar rules are old, worn out methods of learning a second language, and learning science has shown them to be ineffective. In addition, these methods generate stress, raising an 'affective filter' in the brain which impairs its ability to absorb information. Yet most available language learning products still use these discredited methods.  As a result, kids aren’t learning.

Colorful children's stories and gameplay are inherently motivating for children and known to reduce their stress. FabuLingua combines stories and game design with the latest learning science around "comprehensible input" to create a new interactive format that delights and engages kids, and eliminates what language learning experts call the 'affective filter' - stress that inhibits language learning.

Magical Translations¼ is the patent-pending learning method based on an immediate spoken translation that’s strategically and rhythmically woven into the written language to create “comprehensible input”. It’s a uniquely efficient method that keeps the child engaged in the story while playfully developing comprehension, literacy and pronunciation.

Learning languages is an asset to individuals, families, and society. Bilingualism makes children smarter, improving executive function including attention, prioritizing and multitasking. They become better communicators and develop stronger social-emotional skills, empathy and cultural awareness. It even helps protect their brains from age-related diseases.

The cost of live language tutoring or building an extensive collection of books leaves many families without access to the benefits of learning a second language. FabuLingua's digital platform provides a practical, affordable solution for families everywhere—one that is effective and democratizes language learning.

FabuLingua is scaling fast: this creative team has released 15 stories, 60 associated in-story mini-games, and 55h of learning in the last 18 months—with another 50 stories in the production pipeline, 700+ teachers on the waiting list for our teacher module, 80k downloads, and a solid start on subscription monetization.

Our stories are sourced from authors and illustrators all over the world who are able to publish and monetize their creativity on FabuLingua's platform while providing our learners with beautiful, unique, culturally authentic stories.

Today, 1.8B people are learning a new language on and offline, and they are spending $60B to learn. This consumer language learning market is set to almost double to $115B by 2025 and continue with 18.7% annual growth to $170B by 2027. This is led by digital delivering almost 4X growth by 2025.

Innovation in the adult language learning market has been richly rewarded and disruptors such as Duolingo and Babbel now dominate (with an IPO in the near future). The children’s language learning market lacks any such dominant players, is highly fragmented, undercapitalized, and starving for exactly the type of unique innovation and disruption FabuLingua is offering.

There is no shortage of awards for FabuLingua. This incredible platform was recently voted best language learning technology by language learning experts, and was a winner in the 2021 Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards.

Innovation in adult language learning exists in the form of products like Babbel and Duolingo, but their content and methodology were not designed with young children in mind, and can’t be easily adapted to be a compelling, effective way for kids to learn a new language.

With 75% of trials converting into subscriptions, it’s safe to say that teachers, parents, kids, and industry experts all see and feel the difference in FabuLingua.

Founding pair boast previous NASDAQ IPO, founding team in Linktone, background at Goldman Sachs and L’OrĂ©al, and an education at Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge. With a Board of Advisors equally impressive, it’s no wonder FabuLingua is well on its way towards niche domination.

FabuLingua is unique in the increasingly fragmented children’s language learning market and emerging as a player poised for niche domination, offering the whole package: from an interactive story format, to game design, long-term effectiveness, and a wide range of beginner-to-advanced content that puts kids on the path to fluency.

Lofty goals for this language tech innovator include building and launching a teacher dashboard to meet demand from schools and gig language teachers, reducing story production time by 50%, and growing their addressable market by 20x launching FabuLingua English for the US, Latin American and Chinese markets.

As our world keeps changing, one truth remains constant: second languages are a superpower that benefit individuals, families, and society. The effective communication, increased empathy, and cultural awareness that bilingualism develops will shape the future leaders of an increasingly globalized world. Join us as we meet the challenge.

Snag a subscription or two (or 2500!) when you invest in FabuLingua—for yourself, your family and friends, or an entire school of your choice!

All perks over $500 include 2 free personal annual subscriptions.


All perks -
$250 - 1 Free Lifetime Subscription (for personal use or gifting) to new FabuLingua app release in Q1 2023

$500 - 2 Free Lifetime Subscriptions (for personal use or gifting) to new FabuLingua app release in Q1 2022. All investments $1,000+ include this perk.

$1,000 - 15 Free 1 Year Subscriptions (for personal use, gifting, or donation to schools) to new FabuLingua app release in Q1 2023 + 5 FabuLingua character stickers. 

$5,000 - 100 Free 1 Year Subscriptions to be donated to a school of your choice or a Title 1 school to new FabuLingua app release in Q1 2023 + 5 Extra Large stickers of FabuLingua characters.

$10,000 - 200 Free 1 Year Subscriptions to be donated to a school of your choice or a Title 1 school to new FabuLingua app release in Q1 2023 + Wall decals of 3 FabuLingua characters.

$25,000 - 500 Free 1 Year Subscriptions to be donated to a school of your choice or a Title 1 school to new FabuLingua app release in Q1 2023 + "Sponsored by" in the Credits of a FabuLingua Story for 1 year.

$50,000 - 1,000 Free 1 Year Subscriptions to be donated to a school of your choice or a Title 1 school to new FabuLingua app release in Q1 2023 + Zoom meeting with Founders or behind the scenes 'virtual tour' with our Game Developers to see how FabuLingua is built.

$100,000 - 2,500 Free 1 Year Subscriptions to be donated to a school of your choice or a Title 1 school to new FabuLingua app release in Q1 2023 + Dinner and/or Zoom meeting with Founders.


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