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§ Private Profile · New York City, NY, USA
Learn English by speaking with an AI
Key people at Toko.
Toko was founded in 2021 by Jen Liu (Founder) and Erica Du (Founder).
Toko helps English learners in East Asia achieve speaking fluency. Through our mobile app, learners engage in short, realistic conversations with an AI and receive feedback on their grammar.
With over 500 topics, learners can practice real-world scenarios ranging from small talk to workplace discussions. Toko offers a low-pressure environment to help learners build up their confidence.
We make language fluency accessible to everyone - not just those with the means to meet 1:1 with a tutor.
In Taiwan (our first market), Toko is ranked top 3 in the App Store for Education!
Toko was founded in 2021 by Jen Liu (Founder) and Erica Du (Founder).
Key people at Toko.
Toko is an AI-powered English learning app designed to help users improve their speaking skills through realistic, interactive conversations with an AI tutor. It focuses specifically on speaking practice, offering users a low-pressure environment to build confidence by engaging in dialogues on over 1,000 topics ranging from everyday life to workplace scenarios. The app provides instant grammar corrections, pronunciation feedback, and phrasing suggestions, simulating a one-on-one tutoring experience without the cost or scheduling constraints of human tutors. Toko serves English learners worldwide, especially those who need conversational practice and confidence building, addressing the common challenge of speaking fluently and naturally in English[1][3][5].
Toko was founded by two MIT alumni who identified a gap in English learning apps: most emphasized reading, writing, and listening, but few focused intensively on speaking skills. The founders initially launched a prototype in 2021 using Facebook Messenger but pivoted to a dedicated mobile app to better meet user demands such as topic selection, translation, audio playback, and grammar checking. This pivot was driven by early user feedback highlighting the need for a more interactive and user-friendly interface. The founders’ background in AI and machine learning enabled them to tackle complex natural language processing and speech recognition challenges, creating an AI tutor capable of understanding accented English and generating dynamic conversational content[1].
Toko rides the wave of AI-driven personalized education, leveraging advances in natural language processing and machine learning to democratize language learning. The timing is favorable due to growing global demand for English proficiency and the increasing acceptance of AI tutors as effective learning companions. Market forces such as remote learning trends, mobile-first education, and the need for scalable, affordable language practice solutions work in Toko’s favor. By focusing on speaking skills, Toko addresses a critical gap in language education, influencing the broader ecosystem by setting new standards for AI conversational tutors and encouraging more interactive, user-centered learning experiences[1][5].
Looking ahead, Toko is poised to enhance its AI capabilities to offer more adaptive and personalized learning paths, potentially incorporating deeper contextual understanding and more nuanced feedback. Trends such as multilingual support expansion, integration with educational institutions, and AI-driven content customization will likely shape its evolution. As AI technology advances, Toko’s influence could grow beyond individual learners to corporate training and formal education sectors, further transforming how English speaking skills are acquired globally. Its commitment to low-pressure, accessible speaking practice positions it well to remain a leader in AI-powered language learning[1][5].
