【HYSTA Talk 2021.03.27】ELSA Is Coming

About ELSA

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

Based in San Francisco, ELSA has raised $27 million in capital and is backed by leading VCs in Silicon Valley, Southeast Asia, Japan, and Latin America. The company has offices in Portugal and Vietnam. 

Recognition and Awards

Since its launch, ELSA has achieved:

• The 1st Vietnamese startup to enter the finalé, and eventually won 1st prize at SXSWEdu Launch (USA, 2016)

• Accepted to StartX - renowned accelerator for top entrepreneurs from Stanford (annual average acceptance rate: ~ 10%)

• First Vietnamese Startup being selected to Google LaunchPad program (out of 25 companies globally being selected to Google LaunchPad batch 2)

• Top 5 Artificial Intelligence apps by Research Snipers, together with Cortana (Microsoft) and Google Allo (Google)

• Winner of “Best digital learning app” by Reimagine Education (2016)

• Top 15 “Best A.I. Apps for Android & IOS” by Easy Tech Trick and Top 7 by IQVIS (2017), together with Google Allo (Google) & Cortana (Microsoft)

• #1 Education app by Product Hunt 2016 

• Top 10 “A.I. Must-have Apps That Will Make Your Phone Smarter” by Analytics India Magazine, together with Google Allo & Google Assistant (Google) 

• #1 among “13 Southeast Asian tech firms to watch” by South China Morning Post (2018)

• Chosen as App of the Day by Apple in 2019 and 2020

• Top 100 Influencers in State of EdTech Report by EdTech Digest 2020

• Honorable Mention in the AI and Data category of Fast Company's 2020 World Changing Ideas Awards

• Mentioned by CNBC, Bloomerg, TechCrunch, Forbes, Mashable, VentureBeat, Yahoo, Salma Hayek, and more

For more information, please visit the company's website: https://www.elsaspeak.com/home/

Ms. Vu Van (Co-Founder & CEO, ELSA)

Ms. Vu Van is a female entrepreneur and the Co-founder & CEO of Silicon Valley-based ELSA, the world’s best and smartest English pronunciation app. She worked with leading speech scientists, machine learning scientists, and linguists from around the world to create ELSA. Powered by the company’s proprietary AI and speech recognition technology, ELSA scores a learners' speech to pinpoint individual syllable and phoneme level mistakes with real time feedback.

Prior to founding ELSA, Vu lived and worked in Vietnam, Singapore, Denmark where she experienced the challenges of an English language learner abroad. She served as an Engagement Manager at Booz & Co, one of the top four global management consulting firms. Vu earned an MBA and a Masters in Education from Stanford University and is originally from Vietnam.

Previous speaking engagements:

• Keynote speaker at GITEX (Dubai)

• Speaker at EdTech Asia (Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore)
  

• Speaker at ASU + GSV (San Diego, US) (2016, 2017, 2018)
  

• Speaker at EdX (London)
  

• Speaker and award winner at SXSWEdu (2016)
  

• Speaker at Google - Temasek AI conference (Singapore)
  

• Speaker at GSV Pioneer Summit (Redwood City, 2016, 2017, 2018)
  

• Speaker at GSV and Temasek Education Summit (2021)
  

• Various speaking engagements at tech conferences in Asia
  

Awards and Accomplishments:

• Selected as an Endeavor entrepreneur (2020)

• 2019 Asia-Pacific Stevie® Awards - Gold Winner

• 1st prize winner at SXSWEdu 2016 Launch Competition

• National Honoree of Vietnamese Talent (2016) by Vietnamese Government

• Selected as 1 out of Top 100 Innovation and AI experts in Vietnam

• Top 5 Artificial Intelligence apps, together with Cortana (Microsoft) and Google Allo (Google)  

• In Progress- book in Vietnamese titled "Vietnamese female entrepreneur in Silicon Valley"

• Co-Founder of VietSeeds, a non-profit organization committed to bringing equal access to college education for all students in Vietnam, regardless of socio-economics, geography, or background.

Event Details

7:00-8:30PM PDT

Saturday, March 27, 2021

Agenda: 

Moderator: 

Lake Dai

Partner, LDV Partners; 
Chairwoman, HYSTA; Adjunct Professor,
Carnegie Mellon University

Lake is Partner at LDV Partners, a deep tech Silicon Valley VC firm, leading investments in AI/big data/computing. She is also Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University, teaches Applied AI at CMU Integrated Innovation Institute, College of Engineering. 

Prior to that, Lake has 20 years of operating experience of building and scaling product, engineering, and business teams at early-stage startups and public companies. She was employee #84 at Alibaba as head of product, and then led the search engine team at Yahoo!. She was a founding team member of deep tech startups and tech accelerators, and an inventor of 5 US patents in search algorithm, recommendation algorithm, and text tokenization.

Lake is on the Advisory Board of Women In Technology International (WITI), a global non-profit organization empowering women in business and technology. She is Chairwomen of HYSTA, a non-profit organization empowering Chinese American entrepreneurs and leaders. She is also co-founder of Shinect, a non-profit accelerator for SAAS startups.

Event Registration: 

Please scan the QR code below (or click "Read More" at the end of this article) to register and join: