After selling their podcasting startup Anchor to Spotify, co-founders Nir Zicherman and Michael Mignano are back with their next venture: Oboe, an AI-driven learning platform designed to make education lightweight, flexible, and fun. The Berlin-based startup has raised $4 million in seed funding, led by Eniac Ventures with participation from Haystack, Factorial Capital, Homebrew, Offline Ventures, and notable angels including Scott Belsky, Kayvon Beykpour, Nikita Bier, Tim Ferriss, and Matt Lieber.
Oboe enables anyone to generate engaging, personalized courses on virtually any topic with a single prompt. Behind the scenes, a custom-built multi-agent AI system works in parallel to create course structures, verify teaching materials, write scripts, and even pull in real images from the web — all in seconds. Some agents also audit the content to ensure accuracy and quality.
At launch, Oboe offers nine course formats, including text and visuals, interactive tests, mini-games, and two audio styles: one akin to a university lecture and another podcast-like format featuring two hosts. Courses can span topics from science and history to pop culture, news, and language learning.
Users can consume courses for free and create up to five free courses monthly. Paid tiers include Oboe Plus ($15/month for 30 courses) and Oboe Pro ($40/month for 100 courses). Initially available on the web and mobile web, iOS and Android apps are coming soon.
Zicherman, who left Spotify in late 2023, said he was inspired by his experience scaling Spotify’s audiobooks business. “We’re very excited to build a platform that can be the one-stop shop for that intrinsic thirst for knowledge that exists in every person,” he told TechCrunch.
With just five full-time employees today, Oboe plans to scale globally and establish itself as a go-to platform for accessible, personalized learning.
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