Domo puts BRL 4 million in Lingopass, the Language Gympass

Edtech founded by French Alexandrine Brami wants to include the courses in the corporate benefit

When Frenchwoman Alexandrine Brami arrived in São Paulo 20 years ago, she was still engaged in political studies at Sciences Po, the prestigious Paris institute that formed the last two presidents of France — Emmanuel Macron and François Hollande. In what may have been a providence of fate, the professor helped train PUC-SP students who would spend a season in the city of light.

Brami ended up settling in Brazil and entering the world of entrepreneurship. After founding Ifesp, a French language school in Faria Lima that has trained more than 25,000 students, the businesswoman decided to turn to corporate clients, digitizing a language methodology that promises proficiency in two years.

After working for a few years on the development of the concept, Brami founded Lingopass (which absorbs Ifesp), a language edtech that does not deny inspiration from Gympass. In operation since 2021, the startup already has 3,500 active students on the platform for employees of companies such as Azul, Nubank, Bradesco, Quinto Andar and Carrefour.

It is a proposal similar to that of Education Journey, which includes, in addition to languages, other types of courses on the corporate platform, while Lingopass focuses on languages.

“Companies did not find solutions that met their needs, with quick training and that could have transparency about what students are doing in the classroom and what the return on investment is”, says the founder of Lingopass.

The idea of ​​the platform, which works as a benefit – employees have a discount for taking the course – has not only attracted companies interested in improving the corporate benefits package, but has also attracted the attention of investors. Domo Invest, a venture capital firm that has a portfolio of 80 investees and around BRL 500 million in assets under management, has just led a BRL 4 million round at edtech.

“There is a large space in the market and languages ​​are a basic need for companies, especially professionals. What attracted us to Lingopass was the method they developed, which has high engagement and very fast results”, said Marcello Gonçalves, co-founder of Domo.

Through the Lingopass platform, there are courses in English, French and Spanish. The courses can offer recorded classes, but also bring live modules, depending on the client’s needs. In the complete package, which includes live classes, licenses cost BRL 249 per month, while the simplest package costs BRL 89. Depending on the volume of eligible employees, edtech gets discounts.

For human resources managers, one of the advantages of the Lingopass platform is the possibility of monitoring employee performance, linking the benefit to progress in the course or rewarding those who achieve good results, emphasizes the founder. The startup has also started to develop on-demand packages, such as an aviation-oriented English course.

Source: Value Pipeline