Frankfurt School Entrepreneurship Centre reaches first milestone

• Cognate has been founded by a Frankfurt School student and is focused on bringing hyper-personalisation to language learning
• Investment led by two US-based entrepreneurs
• The Entrepreneurship Centre's intention is to foster the growth of entrepreneurial ventures and the start-up community in Frankfurt

Frankfurt School’s Entrepreneurship Centre reaches its first milestone only a few weeks after the Centre has been launched in May 2022. On 30 June 2022, the Centre’s first affiliated start-up, Cognate Language Learning, announced the closing of an investment of 120,000 USD from two American angel investors with a history of successful start-ups at a post-money valuation of two million USD. Cognate is focused on bringing hyper-personalisation to the language learning space. The company has been founded by Frankfurt School student Alejandro Paschalides.

Cognate will use the funds to finalise the development of their minimum viable product, whose launch is planned for October 2022. The lead investor in the recent financing round, Jonathan Treble, knows Cognate’s founder Alejandro Paschalides from their time together at the Wharton School of Business. He was particularly intrigued by Cognate’s product concept given his experience when he was learning German many years ago.

“I'm excited to invest in this company because of their innovative, personalised approach, which I believe will revolutionise the way people learn languages. I wish I had had this tool when I learned German”, said Treble.

Alejandro Paschalides, Founder & CEO of Cognate Language Learning: “We are thrilled to be receiving an investment in our company, and see it as validation of all the hard work the team and I have put in. The funds will greatly help us to continue on our mission to make language learning much more fun, engaging, and above all, effective.”

Ram Shoham, Director of the Frankfurt School Entrepreneurship Centre: “This investment in one of our affiliated start-ups means that our Entrepreneurship Centre has reached its first milestone. We are very proud of the competent team of Cognate Language Learning and look forward to accompanying them on their way.”

The Frankfurt School Entrepreneurship Centre connects founders with relevant partners and offers incubator and accelerator programmes to support them in every phase of their start-up. In addition to access to an exclusive network, particular attention is paid to the development of agile structures to ensure the future competitiveness of the companies. The Centre has several start-ups from a wide range of industries in its portfolio.