Pre-seed and Gaijin Mode Alpha

We've raised $1M in pre-seed funding to help Japanese learners have rich conversations from Day 1. This round is led by AIX Ventures, with participation from angel investors.

Our thesis is simple: the fastest way to get conversational in Japanese is to immerse yourself in Japanese conversations daily.

Gaijin Mode is a voice-based Japanese learning game where you build relationships with characters by discovering the topics they care about. We want you to forget you're learning and get lost in trying to know these characters - through deep conversations and silly ones alike.

Most Japanese learning apps feel like classrooms - structured, controlled, and gamified with quizzes and streaks. Your progress is measured in artificial scores that don't mean much.

We've built something different. You're placed in dynamic environments with characters who have distinct personalities, remember your past conversations, and evolve based on how you interact with them. As your relationships deepen, you unlock their backstories and secrets.

Here's the problem with traditional language learning: it can take months before you can form sentences complex enough for interesting conversations. That gap is frustrating and demotivating.

We solve this by letting you have rich conversations from Day 1 through code-switching. Don't know how to say something in Japanese? Say it in English. We'll show you the Japanese translation instantly, keeping your conversation flowing naturally while you learn.

Finding Japanese conversation partners is hard. Language exchange apps are often misused for dating. In-person meetups are limited to weekends and narrow time slots.

With Gaijin Mode, you can practice speaking Japanese anytime with characters who are always available - no scheduling, no waiting.

We've developed a method that accelerates vocabulary retention: grouping similar-sounding Japanese words into short, memorable stories. After mining through thousands of words, we've curated hundreds of these story-based memory aids.

This approach lets you memorize clusters of words at once - learning one word makes recalling the entire group significantly easier.

In a world that is getting increasingly divisive, we believe in the importance of connecting people across different languages - starting with Japanese.

If building new voice-driven gameplay and social systems powered by AI, while connecting the world closer through language resonates with you, we're hiring!