- Glite, the AI-powered English learning platform, has already created the world’s biggest English vocab test (3M+ people have taken it), generating the data behind an AI system designed to personalise learning the way a human tutor would
- The launch comes as the world faces a shortage of 44 million teachers by 2030, according to UNESCO
- Glite is targeting the 1BN+ of non-native English learners worldwide+, improving confidence and building fluency
LONDON, 23 September 2026. Glite has today launched its app designed to help intermediate and advanced-level English speakers to become genuinely fluent.
Behind the launch sits one of the world’s biggest tests of English for learners beyond the beginner stage, already taken by more than three million people and generating 140M data points used to train the AI models that power the app.
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“We’ve created a unique English learning app for people who already speak English. If other apps are for day one, we are for day 1,000,” said Vassili Philippov, co-founder and CEO of Glite. “Glite is built for intermediate learners, with several years of English behind them. They can hold a conversation and pass an exam, but still cannot follow a film without subtitles, read a novel without a dictionary to hand, or feel fully confident in a work meeting.”
More than two billion people worldwide are learning a language, and many have already cleared the beginner hurdle. In the US, of the roughly 68 million people who speak a language other than English at home, around 13million already speak English well, according to US Census Bureau data. Glite’s target learner sits inside that gap: comfortable enough in English to get by, but not fluent enough to stop trying.
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That gap is opening at the same time as a shortage of teachers. UNESCO estimates the world needs 44 million more teachers by 2030 just to keep pace with current demand. Glite aims to close that gap for intermediate and advanced English learners by mapping what an individual learner does and doesn’t know and deciding what they should learn next.
“The most magical moments in machine learning and AI usually come when people have found a way to use a lot of data,” continued Vassili Philippov, Glite. “We’ve applied that to language learning, which, in a globalised world, grows more and more important, but at the same time there is a distinct lack of people to teach those learners. Glite fills that gap.”
Vassili Philippov previously co-founded mobile software company SPB Software, before selling the business to Russian internet giant Yandex for $38 million in 2011. He later founded MEL Science, a science education platform that has since rebranded as Inquisitive under new leadership, with Philippov remaining its largest shareholder and chair.
Glite’s roadmap does not stop at English. Building the AI models behind the app required a subject with enough learners to generate tens of millions of individual learning journeys, which is why languages, with roughly two billion learners worldwide, were chosen as the starting point.
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About Glite
Glite is an AI-native English learning platform built for learners who already have the basics. Where most apps are designed to teach someone their first few thousand words, Glite is built for what comes after: helping millions of learners who have already started their English journey keep progressing, using real, native-level content like film, TV and news to build genuinely fluent English. Glite is based in London.