April 16 2012 Weld North and NYCIF Join Voxy’s $4M Round, Bring Deep Education Experience To Build Experiential Language Learning Platform

NEW YORK (April 16, 2012) – Voxy, a NYC-based company founded in 2010 and the only language- learning platform based on a learner’s real-life interests, has announced the completion of a new round of funding. Weld North and the New York City Investment Fund join existing investors, ff Venture, Contour Venture Partners and Seavest.
“We are thrilled to have Weld North and the NYCIF join Voxy at this exciting phase of growth,” said Paul Gollash, Founder and CEO of Voxy. “The Principals at Weld North have an incredible legacy of innovation in the education space, dating back to building Kaplan, one of the most admired consumer brands in education. Their collective expertise in building and scaling large education businesses will help us shape our product strategy as we reinvent how languages are learned. NYCIF brings a vast network of public and private sector experts and a civic-minded focus that is crucial for any company seeking to disrupt the entrenched education space.”
“Voxy is reimagining the way people will learn by combining forward thinking curriculum with best in class mobile and web technology. Voxy has an amazing opportunity to teach a worldwide audience a language that can unlock new opportunities and have a fundamental impact on their lives,” said Justin Kulla of Weld North, who joins Voxy’s board as a board observer. “I am looking forward to helping shape a product and a company that can have a significant and lasting impact on global education.”
Since its first mobile product launch in January 2011, Voxy has grown to over 1 million users and has spent almost a year as the #1 iOS Education App in 20 countries, including Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Spain. Utilizing a freemium subscription model, they have tens of thousands of learners paying for the service.
“Voxy is an emerging NYC technology company that is solving real problems for real people. They have true clarity of vision, a strong team, and solid execution to date,” said Maria Gotsch, President and CEO of the NYCIF. “Companies like Voxy are helping to create thousands of jobs and are keeping NYC a vibrant hotbed of innovation.”
This additional capital will allow Voxy to grow its NYC-based engineering team and accelerate product development, further expanding the range of integrated content and lessons available to its base of over 1 million learners.
ABOUT VOXY
Based on proven pedagogical principles, Voxy’s experiential platform creates custom curricula for English language learners based on their interests, routines, goals and learning styles. Leveraging mobile technology and gaming mechanics, Voxy turns everyday experiences into powerful contextual language lessons that are available anytime, anywhere. Voxy is currently focused on teaching English to Spanish and Portuguese speakers but is expanding into new markets and new languages to reach the billions of language learners across the globe.
Voxy launched in public beta at TechCrunch Disrupt in September 2010 as one of the most disruptive technology startups of the year and has been recognized for its innovative approach by The New York Times, CNN Money, Venturebeat, CNN en Español, Business Insider, and many more. Voxy’s iPhone application has been the #1 ranked education app in over 20 countries around the world. Voxy is headquartered in New York City.
ABOUT WELD NORTH
Weld North Holdings LLC (www.weldnorth.com) is an investment company concentrating on education, health and wellness, consumer services and marketing businesses. In partnership with KKR, a leading global investment firm, Weld North seeks to make control investments in businesses with high potential for long-term growth in cash flow and venture investments in exciting young companies that support its growth strategy. With strong and highly motivated management teams, the firm looks to accelerate growth through an obsessive focus on enhancing the customer experience, operational excellence, marketing expertise, and strategic and disciplined management.
ABOUT THE NEW YORK CITY INVESTMENT FUND
The New York City Investment Fund (www.nycif.org) is the vision of Henry R. Kravis, founding partner of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., who serves as its Founding Chairman. The Investment Fund has raised over $110 million to mobilize the city’s world financial and business leaders to help build a stronger and more diversified local economy. It has built a network of top experts from the investment and corporate communities who help identify and support New York City’s most promising entrepreneurs in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. The Fund is governed by a Board of Directors co-chaired by Russell L. Carson, General Partner of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe; and Richard M. Cashin, Managing Partner of One Equity Partners. The Investment Fund is an affiliate of the Partnership for New York City (www.pfnyc.org), an organization of the leaders of New York City’s top corporate, investment, and entrepreneurial firms. They work in partnership with city and state government officials, labor groups, and the nonprofit sector to promote the interest of the city and its neighborhoods. The Partnership carries out research, policy formulation, and issue advocacy at the city, state, and federal levels, leveraging the resources and expertise of its CEO and Corporate partners. Partnership companies account for nearly 7 million American jobs and contribute over $740 billion to the national GDP.