Correcto secures $7M to build out its Grammarly for Spanish
Correcto, a startup based in Madrid, is celebrating the news of securing $7 million in seed funding for their language writing tool. The tool has been designed to assist Spanish speakers with written communication, similar to Grammarly. Interestingly, the team began developing the tool in late 2021, before generative AI tools like ChatGPT rose. The funding round was led by Octopus Ventures, with contributions from Carya Venture Partners and River Park Ventures.
Correcto, a Madrid-based language writing tool startup focusing on Spanish speakers, has announced $7 million in seed funding. London-based Octopus Ventures leads the funding round, with contributions from Carya Venture Partners and River Park Ventures.
The founding team started working on their idea to create a Grammarly-style auto-editing tool for correcting written Spanish in late 2021, before the rise of generative AI tools like ChatGPT. Co-founders Abraham López Lee (CEO) and Ignacio Prieto Mayorga (COO) were inspired by their experiences studying and working abroad and using tech tools like Grammarly to improve the quality of their written English. They were surprised to find a lack of comparable tools for correcting Spanish grammar and syntax, despite years of living outside Spain affecting their confidence in writing professionally in their mother tongue. Thus, they partnered with CTO Antonio Triguero Noriega to develop an MVP.
The team aims to provide Spanish speakers with a helpful, reliable, and accurate language writing tool. They strive to empower users to communicate their ideas effectively and confidently without worrying about common language errors. With the new funding, they hope to expand their capabilities and reach a broader audience.
Correcto’s mission is to empower people to write better through augmented intelligence, not artificial intelligence. They aim to help users worldwide become more productive and feel useful without feeling replaced by AI. López Lee, one of the founders, stresses the importance of maintaining the personal touch and individual writing style, even in the face of machine-generated text. They believe writing with unique warmth and personality can command a premium and distinguish itself from impersonal, spammy messages. Correcto is working on selling its SaaS to enterprises while still offering a freemium version for individual users. They also leverage OpenAI’s API to provide a quasi-generative-writing feature called “Write for Me,” which helps users with context and audience-specific tone in writing projects. Correcto’s Spanish language nuance “fine-tuning” of other LLMs powers this feature. Despite the competitive AI boom, Correcto remains committed to supporting the personal touch, and cariño conveyed through individual writing styles.
At present, Claude from Anthropic and Davinci from OpenAI are being fine-tuned by the team at Correcto. This is because there is a significant discrepancy in the capabilities of Large Language Models for English compared to other languages, according to López Lee, one of the co-founders of Correcto.
Lee also emphasizes the importance of ChatGPT, as it has opened many doors for Correcto. Writing tools were not a priority for corporations when Correcto was first launched. However, the emergence of ChatGPT has made writing tools much more necessary and attractive to businesses. Correcto is now in an excellent position to scale and differentiate itself from other offerings in the market. Although there is competition in the field, it covers fewer writing requirements than Correcto does. The market is large enough to accommodate multiple unicorns, and Correcto aims to be the first unicorn to focus specifically on Spanish writing.
Correcto points out that the addressable market for Spanish writing support is enormous, with more native Spanish speakers (500 million) than native English speakers (373 million). However, this needs to consider the demand for English writing support from non-native English speakers, which adds up to over a billion people. Nonetheless, the tool still has a vast pool of potential users. If the output and utility of the tool are most vital for specific dialects of Spanish, then the addressable pool may be smaller than the total number of native speakers.
The co-founders of Correcto believe that their product offers a particular opportunity in Latin America. Many native Spanish speakers in this region may not have had access to a level of education that enables them to write professionally in their mother tongue.
According to Prieto Mayorga, the top countries currently using Correcto are Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, and the US. The company’s initial target market for its paid versions is editorial, communications, and marketing professionals. The startup hopes to ride the wave of AI hype and provide a one-stop-shop solution for Spanish businesses that suddenly require AI writing support.
Correcto’s long-term goal is to generate the possibility of a strategic exit to one of the AI giants. However, the team believes this is difficult for more prominent players to do themselves, as they have yet to target new instances of the Spanish language. They are focusing on building out a compelling product for their users. The team is not interested in competing with larger companies from a Large Language Model perspective but rather in giving people a solution to meet their needs.
There is also competition from Clibrain, another Spain-based startup focused on tuning AI to serve Spanish speakers. López Lee believes their respective use cases are distinct, with Clibrain selling API access to their own Spanish-language tuned LLM, while Correcto is selling their product to companies in the form of a product, not in an API. There is even the possibility that the two companies could end up working together.
In auto-editing, a competitor to Correcto, LanguageTool, is mentioned. However, LanguageTool focuses more on Spanish and provides grammar assistance for multiple languages, which sets it apart from Correcto. Regarding language generation, there is a lot of competition in the market. Mainstream LLMs like ChatGPT and smaller tools catering to specific content needs for Spanish speakers, such as email writing or SEO copy, are just a few examples. Correcto’s approach is to offer a multifaceted tool for Spanish speakers that delves deep into language nuances and provides broad utility.
Before securing their $7M seed funding, Correcto had raised $1M in a pre-seed round. The team recalls being boosted by an entrepreneurship prize they won from King’s College Cambridge, which gave them £20k to start building their MVP. This was a significant moment for the team as they lacked the financial means to fund their project entirely.
The seed funding Correcto has announced is one of the highest rounds to be awarded to a Spanish startup. The funding will be utilized for AI and product development, focusing on improving AI’s ability to set the tone and style for Mexican, Colombian, and Argentinian Spanish. This will give Correcto a differentiating edge in the market.
Andrés Pérez Soderi, general partner at Carya Venture Partners, commented on the seed funding in a statement and emphasized Correcto’s opportunity in LatAm. He stated that Correcto offers more than just grammar correction but also brings generative AI, cultural connection, and opportunities to millions of users in LatAm. The Carya Venture Partners team is thrilled to back this mission and its driven team.