Preply, an edtech marketplace, announced an additional approximately €29.4 million of funding, which is a sum that supersedes the platform’s total fundraising efforts since 2013. The UK is language learning platform’s biggest European market and is one of the leading European economies with a high interest in language learning. The round was co-led by both Owl Ventures and Full In Partners and participations from previous, including Point Nine Capital, Hoxton Ventures and All Iron. Other notable participants are Angel Investors Niklas Ostberg, CEO and co-founder of Delivery Hero; Arthur Kosten, co-founder of Booking.com; David Helgason, co-founder of Unity Technologies and Gary Swart, formal CEO of Upwork.
The online language learning platform, Preply, connects over 40,000 bookable tutors teaching 50 languages to hundreds of thousands of learners in 180 countries worldwide. With student-tutor matches being suggested via a machine-learning algorithm, recommended tutors design customized lesson plans according to learner’s budget, schedule and existing knowledge. Every day, thousands of learners enrol in classes from teachers of 160 nationalities. Founded in 2013 by the Ukrainian-based team of Kirill Bigai, Serge Lukyanov and Dmytro Voloshyn, Preply has 250 staff members of 36 different nationalities at offices in Kyiv and Barcelona.
The series B pronouncement comes right after an exceptional year for Preply, with the overall numbers of active learners and tutors, GMV and overall revenues quadrupling at all levels. The growth, in part, can be attributed to growth in e-learning adoption, already in existence and now accelerated by COVID-19 lockdowns. An increase in Preply’s overall performance correlates with how the platform combines its human-led approach with a proprietary curriculum product, which covers the full learning sojourn with AI-powered features. With this technology, the amount of time each student spends on Preply has significantly increased and has resulted in a 16% increment in purchased lessons per learner.
In Europe, the UK is the biggest market for Preply because it is one of the leading European economies with a high interest in language learning. 20% of enrolled students are learning Spanish, followed by English, French, Arabic and Italian. English is still the second most popular language of study in the UK, resulting from a demand generated by relocators, expats, and foreign students-in-market. Aside from these renowned languages, some students are still learning sign language and Latin. Basically, the British students are using this learning platform to improve their existing conversation skills (50%) and some for professional development (20%) and for preparation to relocate abroad (13%).
The CEO of Preply, Kirill Bigai, said, “This round represents an exceptional achievement for the entire team following the exciting journey over the past years. This new funding will help us tackle a variety of strategic priorities, as we plan to double our workforce across all divisions and locations. We will add more value for both students and tutors by improving support systems and amplifying the classroom and curriculum experience, which has proved so valuable already.”
Bigai further added, “We also have big plans to build out our B2B business, which we expect to become a much larger proportion of our revenues in the coming years. As we secure our leading position in Western Europe and North America, we will be diversifying our media and marketing mix to build a globally-recognized brand. I am personally most pleased by the prospect of scaling in promising new markets to really deliver on our mission to shape the future of effective learning.”
The Principal of Owl Ventures, Ross Darwin, said, “As a firm dedicated to promoting transformative education companies, we are highly optimistic about the online language learning market, which is estimated to be worth over USD 21 billion by 2024. We could not be more pleased to invest in Preply and are confident that they will capture a big piece of that pie.”
The co-founder and Managing Director of Full In Partners, Jessica Davis, remarked, “We were impressed with Preply’s differentiated and highly scalable model for language learning. We have spent a decade investing in edtech and marketplace businesses, and Preply really stands out for its strong leadership, high-velocity growth, and Greenfield market opportunity.”
