Group Overview and History
goFLUENT was founded in New York in early 2000 by a 26 year old French entrepreneur, Christophe Ferrandou, who was working in the banking industry at the time.
Christophe started goFLUENT while he was looking for an English training program that was flexible, as well as one that was adapted to his personal and professional needs.
Unable to find such a solution, he designed his own English learning plan. He hired a native English-speaking trainer to give him lessons over the telephone, and he set up a website which allowed him to share his homework with his trainers and manage his training and progress.
After seeing very positive results after only a few months of training, he knew that he couldn't possibly be the only person who could benefit from this training method. It was in this spirit that he founded goFLUENT. He chose the name goFLUENT because fluency was the ultimate goal of the training program that he set up.
A few months after launching goFLUENT in the U.S., goFLUENT began its international expansion, starting in Europe at the end of 2000 and opening corporate offices in Asia in 2005. goFLUENT is now present in 10 countries (the Americas, Europe and Asia).
Today, goFLUENT is the European leader in e-Learning English and English telephone lessons.
goFLUENT employs more than 560 employees in ten countries, which include our English trainers who come from diverse backgrounds, such as finance, law, marketing, information technology, sales, and human resources.
goFLUENT has over 5,000 corporate clients worldwide who trust goFLUENT's e-Learning English and English telephone lessons. And with over a decade of experience, goFLUENT knows exactly how to respond to their corporate training needs.
In January 2010, NTT Communications (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation), the 3rd largest telecom operator in the world and 31st largest company in the world, became a majority shareholder of goFLUENT Group SA. This partnership has provided goFLUENT with a private line linking its production sites to the European voice and data network. goFLUENT is the only distance English learning company in Europe that has signed a global agreement with one of the world's largest telecommunications companies. Despite the global economic crisis that hit in 2008, goFLUENT still managed to have a 41 percent growth rate.