# Ello

> Ello is an AI reading coach for children in kindergarten through third grade. Through its 'Read with Ello' app, a friendly turquoise elephant listens to kids read aloud, catches mispronounced or skipped words, and offers gentle, phonics-based coaching in real time. Built on proprietary child speech-recognition technology and a library of hundreds of decodable books, Ello aims to give every child the patient, one-on-one reading tutor that has historically been available only to families who can afford it.

- **Founded:** 2019
- **Headquarters:** San Francisco, United States
- **Founders:** Tom Sayer (Co-founder & CEO (ex-Google for Education)), Catalin Voss (Co-founder & CTO (Stanford AI researcher)), Dr. Elizabeth Adams (Co-founder & Chief Experience Officer (clinical psychologist))
- **Team size:** ~83 employees
- **Products:** Read with Ello, Story Creation, Ello for Schools, Library & EBT/SNAP access
- **Notable:** Raised $15M Series A in September 2023, led by Goodwater Capital with backing from Reed Hastings, Named to Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies 2024 list for democratizing access to reading coaches, Proprietary child speech-recognition reported to outperform OpenAI's Whisper and Google Cloud Speech on kids' voices

## Products & services

- **Read with Ello** — An iPhone/iPad app where a turquoise elephant AI listens to a child read aloud, identifies mispronounced or skipped words, and uses phonics-based strategies to coach reading in real time. Library of 700+ decodable books matched to the child's level.
- **Story Creation** — Launched 2024, lets kids invent their own custom stories with the AI, then read them back aloud - turning young learners into authors to deepen engagement and literacy.
- **Ello for Schools** — Free access to decodable books from any web browser plus a planned accountless classroom mode, bringing Ello's 1:1 tutoring model into the educational system.
- **Library & EBT/SNAP access** — Partnerships with public libraries (e.g., DC Public Library) and a discounted $0.99/month plan for EBT/SNAP families to widen access.

## Achievements

- Raised $15M Series A in September 2023, led by Goodwater Capital with backing from Reed Hastings
- Named to Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies 2024 list for democratizing access to reading coaches
- Proprietary child speech-recognition reported to outperform OpenAI's Whisper and Google Cloud Speech on kids' voices
- 300,000+ books read aloud on the platform by ~10,000 families
- Library of 700+ decodable books aligned to the science of reading

## Latest updates

- **2024-09** — Launched custom story creation, letting kids invent their own stories and read them back aloud.
- **2024-01** — Named to Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies 2024 for democratizing access to reading coaches.
- **2023-09** — Closed $15M Series A led by Goodwater Capital with Reed Hastings, Homebrew, Common Sense Growth and Ravensburger.

## Links

- Website: https://ello.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/elloinc
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/ReadWithEllo
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/readwithello
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/readwithello/
- TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@readwithello

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ello
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-09