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Our story

A language app for the
next generation — and the one that raised them.

We started Luthando because the apps that taught our languages were built somewhere else, for someone else. So we made our own — for the four-year-old learning isiZulu from her gogo on FaceTime, and the thirty-year-old who never quite picked it up the first time.

Our mission

Put a mother tongue back in every African pocket — and make it simple enough to use on the bus home.

Across the continent, many languages are spoken — and most of them are missing from the apps people learn on. So whole generations grow up speaking the language of school but not the language of home.

Luthando is built to close that gap. Bite-sized lessons, voice practice that understands clicks and tones, and stories that families actually want to share — all designed mobile-first for the way Africa actually learns.

A grandmother and granddaughter sitting together with a phone Cape Town · 2023
How it started

A grandparent, a video call, and a question that kept coming back.

Members of our team kept noticing the same thing — family video calls were warm but short. The kids spoke English. The elders answered in isiZulu, Yoruba, Twi, Amharic. The conversations couldn’t quite go anywhere.

The big language apps didn’t teach those languages. The two that did taught them like a tourist phrasebook. “Where is the bathroom?” Not exactly Sunday-lunch material.

That gap became Luthando — a language app where children and adults learn the languages of home together, taught by people who grew up speaking them, in a way that actually fits a family.

What we believe

Four values, written on the office wall.

We didn’t pick these from a brand workshop. They’re the lines we say to each other when a decision gets hard.

i

Mother tongue first

Every language we ship is built with native-speaking teachers from that community — not translated from English on the side.

ii

Free for families who need it

Learners under 18 in low-income households use Luthando free, forever. The platform is supposed to lift, not gatekeep.

iii

Tell the truth, plainly

No streak-shaming, no dark patterns, no manipulative push notifications. Learning a language is meant to feel good, not stressful.

iv

Build with the community

Half of every language’s curriculum is shaped by parents, teachers and elders from the communities that speak it.

Who’s building it

A growing team across the continent.

Engineers, designers, linguists, audio producers, and a few elders who keep us honest about how each language is actually spoken.

[Team profiles coming soon — meet the people building Luthando here.]

Want to join us?

Linguists, engineers and storytellers — we’re hiring.

Especially folks rooted in the languages we teach. Remote-friendly across the continent.