The number of native Spanish speakers worldwide far surpasses the number of native English speakers at nearly 500 million compared to 373 million, respectively. Correcto – the first and only real-time AI-based writing tool for Spanish – is providing a way to help Spanish speakers communicate in writing with confidence: correcting spelling, grammar, and usage including explanations of why something should be fixed. And the company also announced its $7 million seed funding.
Octopus Ventures, Carya Venture Partners, and River Park Ventures contributed to the funding round – which is one of the highest rounds to date for a Spanish startup. The venture funds are based in the UK and the US. And Correcto is incorporated in Delaware and its three co-founders: Abraham López Lee, CEO; Ignacio Prieto Mayorgas, COO; and Antonio Triguero Noriega, CTO—are now based in Spain. The CEO and COO also spent years studying in the UK.
The market for Correcto is very large in the United States and all of Latin America. And the U.S. has the second-largest Spanish speaking population in the world (after Mexico), with 53 million Americans who speak Spanish and 41 million who speak it as their native tongue. Plus, the U.S. Spanish-speaking population is almost the same as the number of people in Spain.
Correcto has traction with over 120,000 downloads from early adopters in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, the United States, and Spain, with users communicating in Spanish for professional, academic or social reasons. And by providing explanations as well as corrections, Correcto helps these users regardless of their education level to learn from their mistakes and continually improve their writing skills.
The team started developing Correcto in 2021, building a proprietary database of phrases, one by one. And they are further optimizing their proprietary artificial intelligence models with the aim of putting Spanish on the AI map. Correcto provides:
— More than 1 million words in Correcto’s proprietary dictionary
— Trained correction models with more than 6 million sentences
— Text analysis with more than 1.6 million unique words to obtain the frequency of use of those words
Based on an internal analysis that reviewed primary and secondary data on usage and customers’ work, Correcto has been able to draw the following conclusions about how the platform improved and enhanced written communications:
— By helping teams maintain a positive brand image by creating content that reflects the company’s values, Correcto facilitates a positive brand image by 32%.
— When scoring for inclusive language to protect employees and foster an inclusive/respectful work environment, Correcto, increases the use of inclusive language by 45%.
— By providing a tool that corrects grammatical and spelling errors and suggesting improvements in writing style and structure, Correcto increases employee writing confidence by 93%.
— By reducing the time required for writing and proofreading, and enabling employees to focus on more important tasks, Correcto increases writing productivity by 56%.
Correcto provides a free consumer version supported by advertising, which delivers spelling, punctuation and grammar checking. And the paid subscription version also includes an unlimited writing assistant and text statistics.
KEY QUOTES:
“Correcto signifies more than just grammar correction; it brings generative AI, cultural connection and opportunity to millions of users in LATAM. We could not be more excited to back this mission and its driven team.”
— Andrés Pérez Soderi, general partner, Carya Venture Partners
“As we were living and studying outside of Spain and struggling with our English writing skills and using online tools to assist us, my co-founder and I realized that such tools to help with Spanish communications did not exist. It was obvious that with a customer base that comprises hundreds of millions of native Spanish speakers—as well as those who have Spanish as a second language—that they would absolutely benefit from an online writing platform. This is especially urgent in the developing regions of LATAM, where literacy rates can be lower.”
“This is the first and only platform that started from native Spanish; not translated from English back to Spanish. Having a software solution like Correcto, which improves written communications, can increase people’s chances of obtaining higher-level employment opportunities.”
— Ignacio Prieto Mayorgas, COO and co-founder, Correcto
“In the workplace, Correcto helps us to improve our internal and external written communication, to review and correct our writing and to enhance the communication process.” Another user, Isabel, stated, “I now send texts with confidence and without the need to check them 100 times in case I’ve made a mistake. I would define Correcto as: peace of mind.”
— Correcto user Cristina
