Preply, an online language learning marketplace, has recently announced that it has raised $70 million (approximately €62.4M) in equity and debt, bringing its Series C round to $120 million. Led by Horizon Capital, the round was also participated by Reach Capital, Hoxton Ventures and other existing investors.
Founded in 2012 by Dmytro Voloshyn, Kirill Bigai, and Serge Lukianov, Preply has grown from a team of 3 to almost 500 employees of 60 nationalities. With offices in Barcelona, New York, and Kyiv, its employees work across 30 countries in Europe, USA, Africa, Asia and Latin America. It has more than 35,000 tutors teaching over 50 languages.
Co-founder & CEO of Preply, Kirill Bigai, said: “It’s a great achievement to have secured this capital injection while we still have plenty of runways and the majority of the previous raise in the bank; a result of rigorous capital efficiency and a laser focus on performance. The additional funds will enable us to extend our leadership in the category through AI-powered human tutors, providing a learning experience quickly becoming a game changer.”
Preply is used by companies such as Datadog, GroupM and Bain to drive improvements in their teams’ communication skills, increasing employee confidence levels and productivity. In addition, it has partnered with language authority ETS (Education Testing Service) to deliver a personalized preparation experience for the TOEFL iBT®, a measure of English proficiency used by over 11,500 institutions worldwide.
The edtech startup is using AI as an engine to scale learning, improve access and focus on teaching like never before. It has launched a teaching assistant to enable tutors to create a variety of exercises, grammar explanations, conversation starters and more. Preply actively analyzes student performance and learning patterns data to identify areas where students struggle. The aim is to develop personalized lesson plans and summaries that address a learner’s individual needs and share insights with the tutor community on the best lessons and learning outcomes.
Commenting on the investment, Founding Partner & CEO of Horizon Capital, Lenna Koszarny, said: “We are excited to partner with Preply’s exceptional founders and superb leadership team in delivering on their mission of unlocking human potential through learning. Preply fits perfectly into our investment thesis of backing Ukraine’s new generation of visionary entrepreneurs while paving the way for others inspired to create their global champion powered from Ukraine that the entire nation can take pride in. We believe the best is yet to come.”
With this fundraising, the Ukrainian-founded company plans to extend its leadership in the category through AI-powered human tutors providing a learning experience. To date, the company has raised $170 million in funding.
The latest investment from Preply offers teachers an innovative way to connect with students and provide personalized learning experiences. This is an exciting development in the edtech industry and one that can significantly benefit teachers, students and the entire educational sector.
