Ukrainian edTech platform Preply raises $50M

The Ukrainian edTech company Preply has raised $50 million in Series C funding. Thus, since its launch in 2012, the company has raised over $100 million in total, AIN.Capital reports. 

Details of the deal

The round was led by Owl Ventures, with participation from previous investors, in particular, Diligent Capital, Hoxton Ventures, Educapital, Evli Growth Partners, as well as co-founder of Grupa Pracuj Przemysław Gacek. The new VC investment companies Swisscom Ventures and Orbit Capital also joined.

The funds raised will be used to expand the company’s operations in the US and Europe, further develop the AI-based tutor searching technology, and increase the global community of foreign language learners.

The platform plans to capture the growing online language learning market, which will reach $47 billion by 2025.

In March 2021, Preply raised $35 million in Series B funding.

About Preply

Preply is a Ukrainian company that develops a global language learning marketplace. The company was founded by Kirill Bigai, Dmytro Voloshyn, and Serhii Lukyanov. Using a machine learning algorithm, recommended teachers create personalized lesson plans based on a student’s budget, schedule, and current knowledge. As stated by the founders, Preply unites the world’s biggest foreign language learners community.

• Today Preply is global edTech-platform that brings together more than 32,000 tutors who teach 50 languages to hundreds of thousands of students from 180 countries. Over 250 people work in two offices based in Kyiv and Barcelona.
• Last year, Preply tripled its B2B operations. Among its clients are such companies as Bytedance (TikTok), Mercedes, and McKinsey.
• In the past two years, the number of Preply users has quadrupled. The general amount of students who study with the marketplace is bigger than Ivy League.
• Preply has offices in three countries — Ukraine, the US, and Spain, and its founders are from Kyiv.
• Despite the war in Ukraine, Preply managed to grow its team to 400 employees of 58 nationalities in 30 countries.
• Over the past few months, the company’s international staff has launched a number of significant initiatives to support Ukraine. Among them are the Message for Ukraine campaign, which translates more than 8,000 messages of support from around the world into Ukrainian, as well as a free language assistance program for thousands of Ukrainians crossing borders and starting to learn a new language.