Hyperbond Studio Raises USD 500k to Launch Call Me Sensei, an AI Dating-Sim Language Learning App
SINGAPORE, 9 February 2026 – Hyperbond Studio today announced the launch of Call Me Sensei, an AI companionship app that turns language learning into a dating-sim experience, alongside the close of an oversubscribed $500k funding round from a group of venture funds, family offices and angel investors.
Call Me Sensei is built on a simple but widely held cultural trope: the best way to learn a language is to date someone who speaks it. Instead of fixed curricula and drills, the app creates an interactive story where learners practice through relationship-building with AI companions called "senseis". Progress happens through conversation in real-world scenarios: a first date at a café, buying train tickets together, or handling a travel emergency abroad.
Each sensei is a fully voiced AI companion with a distinct personality. They respond to how users communicate, not only what they say, and remember past conversations. The aim is for interactions to feel less like lessons and more like a continuing relationship.
"Language learning has been treated as a content problem. We think it's an engagement problem. People learn faster when they care about the conversation, not the grammar," said Shawn Tan, Co-Founder of Hyperbond Studio. "With the backing of our investors, we can now bring that experience to learners all over the world."
The funding round includes participation from early-stage funds Loyal VC, Next Level Ventures, and Attribute Global Ventures, alongside a group of experienced angel investors. These include Yoann Turpin (Co-Founder of Wintermute), Liang Chee Chong (Head of Asia Private Direct Investments at Julius Baer), Ong Jie Lun (Head of Ventures at Plug and Play APAC), Atif Khalil (General Partner at Razor Capital), Tony Lee (Founder of CLINK), Frederick Tan (Head of APAC at CoinTelegraph), Sean Kim (Founder of O-SEAN), Will Leung (Head of Partnerships and Strategy at Caladan), and Asal Alizade (Head of MENA & UAE at Base).
Capital will be used to expand the cast of senseis and story routes, grow the team, and enhance the app's AI and voice infrastructure as Hyperbond prepares for broader launch and scale.
Hyperbond Studio has also announced a partnership with MiniMax, a multi-billion-dollar Hong Kong-listed AI company and leading Asian foundation model provider. MiniMax's text-to-speech (TTS) technology now powers the voices of all AI companions in Call Me Sensei, enabling conversations that sound and feel strikingly real.
Call Me Sensei is currently live in open alpha on iOS App Store and Google Play, and currently supports English and Japanese language learning from 20+ base languages. It will commence open beta later this month, with Chinese, Spanish, and Korean expansion planned in H1 2026.
About Hyperbond Studio
Hyperbond Studio builds emotionally intelligent AI products at the intersection of education, companionship, and interactive entertainment. Its flagship product, Call Me Sensei, built on a proprietary AI architecture focused on emotional intelligence and long-term memory, helps learners practice real-world language through immersive dating-sim experiences. Operating as a distributed team across Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and India, Hyperbond Studio brings native cultural and language context into the design of its AI companions and scenarios.