26 minutes of joy — Our investment in Twenix

JME Ventures is partnering with Twenix for its Seed round, where we’ll be working with Jorge, Daniel, and Jose.

Twenix is an online language B2B marketplace, connecting employees with language teachers in conversation sessions of 26 minutes, creating a win-win-win situation:

• Companies get an alternative to the dysfunctional and expensive traditional one-size-fits-all B2B language training programs, making it easier and more efficient for organizations.
• Employees get on-demand conversation lessons with native teachers from any geographic location, creating a 24/7 availability in the platform and high levels of virality between workers.
• Teachers from any corner of the world get a new, flexible, and hassle-free source of income, imparting conversation classes with content previously planned by Twenix.

Now, let’s dive deeper into our investment thesis:

It all begins with the founders: No BS, just performance

During my time in Venture Capital, I have learned it all starts with the founders. The earlier you invest, the more critical the founders.

Jorge, Daniel, and Jose are real hustlers. Coming from Almeria, they lived the ups and downs of moving around different cities, pivoting their business model, and the pain of a co-founder leaving the team. They never stop hustling. They demonstrated that with only 10 euros and lots of energy, you can create a profitable and scalable company👊.

Education for the workforce is changing

Many employees are looking for employers who provide not just a paycheck but opportunities for them to develop skills and advance in their careers. Companies’ language training budgets are increasing but are still limited amounts, so organizations are looking for efficient solutions. Traditional face-to-face language courses have a 40% usage rate inside organizations, meaning that more than half of the money is left on the table😲. Therefore, traditional classroom language learning, especially the one-size-fits-all approach, is no longer an effective solution.

Twenix enables individual online classes of 26 minutes, customized based on companies’ and workers’ requirements, creating high engagement and virality inside of organizations. At the same time, Twenix offers employers a budget performance tool, so L&D departments can track employee training, achieving an average usage rate among their employees of +80%.

The world speaks English

The spread of the English language can be traced back to the days of the colonial expansion and has become the default language in the business environment during the last decades, as many professionals do not speak the same native language🌍. As a result, it’s more important than ever for organizations to make sure their employees can communicate professionally in English.

Nevertheless, Twenix doesn’t mean English only, and they are already planning to launch Spanish, French, or Italian.

Online is the new default — Language learning at scale🚀

With language learning becoming a critical business need, organizations are looking to scale it across the entire organization. Way before coronavirus hit the world, remote working and flexible timetables were the main perk in all top-notch companies. Why? Humans are seeking proper work-life balances, and everything, including training programs, needs to be adapted to this new reality.

Therefore, traditional face-to-face training courses are no longer a practical solution. Employees are looking for alternatives that allow them to tailor classes to their flexible schedules, making companies increasingly opt for on-demand, online and individual programs such as Twenix, where the employees can take their courses at the time that best suits them.

B2B Marketplace

Some weeks ago, I wrote a post explaining why I am bullish on B2B Marketplaces, and Twenix is an excellent representation of those three main reasons:

1. The Global Workplace Learning & Development industry was valued at $366bn in 2018, and the online language learning market represented $11bn of this market and is expected to reach $20bn in 2025, growing at 10.2% CAGR.
2. This market is very inefficient. Twenix has proven that a Marketplace is the best way to create a unique user experience in this fragmented market. Companies like Cabify, Just Eat, or Puma are already using Twenix for their language training programs.
3. The team has shown outstanding traction while being very capital efficient, creating network effects early on and building the foundations of an extremely scalable company. This is just the beginning!

We are super excited about working with Jorge, Daniel, and Jose as they build their company💪. It’s the dream for an investor to work with the most talented founders from the earliest days.

So, do you have 26 minutes?

If you are a founder, Jorge shares one learning a day from his experience starting up a company at 1000 lemons🤯 Take a look and give him a shout!