SPEAK, the tech platform that promotes language and culture exchange of migrants, went to Amsterdam to the global final of the Chivas Venture Tournament, and won third place.
SPEAK is a linguistic and cultural programme with more than 21.8k members, including migrants, refugees and locals that democratizes language learning. It operates an Online-2-Offline model and brings people closer together with the aim of solving social exclusion of migrants and refugees. Nowadays, it is possible to experience SPEAK in 18 different cities and 24 languages are shared.
The Chivas Venture is one of the most important international social entrepreneurship competitions, that has the objective of supporting “social entrepreneurs blending profit with purpose to have a positive impact on the world” with 1$ million funding.
SPEAK was the startup chosen to represent Portugal in the final of the Chivas Venture in Amsterdam, last May 9th. 20 startups from different countries around the world competed in the 2019 Global Final and presented their work. Hugo Menino Aguiar, SPEAK’s co-founder pitched and SPEAK won third place in the international competition and fourth place on the online voting competition (out of 20 ventures). This result represents $110k of funding that the startup will use to “improve our programme to better impact our beneficiaries and enhance our franchise model, allowing for further expansion into new cities, creating job opportunities and empowering communities. More than 20,000 people from 150 nationalities have already joined”.
In the past, MAZE worked with SPEAK for over 18 months to raise 500K€ creating a direct link between revenue potential and impact creation, refine the business model and build a compelling investment proposal to impact investors.
We’re so proud of being part of this amazing team’s journey.
