Speak's proprietary ASR system and massive dataset of one billion spoken sentences from 2024 alone could be enticing for larger competitors. Duolingo, for example, has 135 million active monthly users, and is implementing GenAI in its Max tier. Acquiring Speak could be strategic to remove a high-growth competitor and integrate its superior speech-recognition technology. 

This exit strategy has precedent, as CEO and founder Connor Zwick has already demonstrated this path by selling his previous venture, Flashcards+, to Chegg in 2013.

This type of market consolidation has already occurred in 2026, with the $2.5 billion merger of Coursera and Udemy. As it is, investors in 2026 are prioritizing scale and distribution, which lends credence to this exit strategy. As an example, Speak could merge with competitor ELSA Speak, which has a similar platform but a different focus; this strategy could help both companies compete against the massive user bases of established giants in the field, like Duolingo mentioned above.

With a solid user base, a successful pivot into the corporate realm, and $100 million in annualized revenue, Speak has demonstrated that it can generate the forecastable revenue that public markets reward.