In July 2004, Saybot Inc. was founded by Dr. Pengkai Pan in Boston, USA. Dr. Pan's initial ideas for Saybot were recognized and funded by his mentor, digital guru Nicholas Negroponte. Additionally, the company received investments of tens of millions of dollars from renowned VCs, and Leonard Kleinrock, one of the forefathers of the Internet. The initial team was composed of seasoned veterans in business, technology, and education, including PhD graduates from MIT and Stanford University, and ESL teaching professionals.

On October 18th, 2005, Saybot released Saybot 1.0 Beta - the first intelligent English language listening and speaking software.

On March 31st, 2006, the 21st Century Digital Learning Summit was jointly organized by Saybot Inc., Tsinghua University and MIT, and was held at Tsinghua University, Beijing.

In June 2006, Saybot developed a series of courses called ONLY Interpretation, in cooperation with the leading Shanghai language training institution Only Education Group.

In September 2006, Saybot was awarded the "Pujiang Fund", issued by the Shanghai Science and Technology Committee.

In November 2006, Saybot was awarded the "Innovation Fund", issued by the Shanghai Science and Technology Committee.

In November 2006, Saybot was awarded the "Software and IC Industry Development Fund", issued by the Shanghai Information Committee.

In December 2006, Saybot and Li Yang Crazy English signed a strategic cooperation contract with Li Yang working as the Chief English Advisor to Saybot (Shanghai) Inc., and Dr. Pengkai Pan working as the Chief Science Advisor to Crazy English.

In December of 2006, Saybot signed a cooperative agreement with the largest English materials publisher in China, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, to co-develop interactive online English curricula for primary students from grade three to grade six.

In December 2006, Saybot signed an MOU with Cambridge University Press to develop interactive online English curricula using the English resources provided by Cambridge University Press.

In 2007, a number of venture capital firms, led by CID and including CMHJ, Hotung Group, and Vickers Venture, invested US$8.2 million. This injection of capital rounded out Saybot's second round of investment. Ms. Wenqian Luo and Mr. Jialiang joined the board at Saybot.

In March 2007, Saybot released a new version of Interview English which had been comprehensively improved both in content and in design. This product was intended to help job hunters with interviews.

In July 2007, Saybot was awarded the "Innovation Fund" issued by the SME Technology Innovation Fund Management Center at the Ministry of National Science and Technology.

In September 2007, Saybot released a new version of the player, Saybot 2.0.

In March 2008, Saybot signed a cooperative agreement with Longre Education Group, a well-known ELS training center in China.

In June 2008, E-plus (FLRTP) passed the appraisal by experts from National Center for Educational Technology. It was strongly recommended for use by primary school students.

In October 2008, Saybot released a new course, "American Talk".

Saybot was awarded the Red Herring 100 Award in December, 2008. The Red Herring Awards evaluated entrepreneurial companies throughout Asia and identified Saybot as one of the top 100 companies. This award was in recognition of Saybot's innovative technology and market acceptance from international scientific and financial circles.

In March 2009, Saybot Player version 2.5 was officially released. The new generation distributed-speech recognition engine provided more accurate results, and the interface and user experience were also optimized, making the system more intuitive to use. The new version improved learning management and the ability to control the scheduling and delivery of content.

In April 2009, Dr. Pengkai Pan, CEO of Saybot, was interviewed by American magazine, Forbes. Dr. Pan introduced the advanced technology and successful experience at Saybot, and the huge potential English learning market in China.

In November 2009, Saybot was awarded the "Innovation Fund" issued by the Shanghai Science and Technology Committee.

In November 2009, Dr. Pengkai Pan was interviewed by China First Financial Daily. During the interview, Dr. Pan emphasized the high demand for product innovation and high quality in the education market. He also mentioned the huge developing education market in the world, and especially China.

In July 2010, Saybot (Shanghai) Inc. moved to Shanghai Pudong Software Park, located in Zhangjiang High-Technology Park. Zhangjiang was the first of five national software industry bases, and is considered China's "Silicon Valley".

In November 2010, Saybot Player 2.0 was awarded the Shanghai Excellent Software Honorary Title, as was Alo7 English Learning World, both of which are mentioned in the Shanghai Software Service and Product Recommendation Manual.