Berlin \u2014 Ukraine-based Preply today reached a mile\u00adstone in its finan\u00adcing history by secu\u00adring an addi\u00adtio\u00adnal $70 million in equity and debt finan\u00adcing. As a result, Prep\u00adly\u2019s Series C is now at $120 million. With nearly 500 employees from 60 natio\u00adna\u00adli\u00adties in 30 count\u00adries world\u00adwide, Preply has become a global e\u2011learning power\u00adhouse, connec\u00adting 35,000 tutors with the worl\u00add\u2019s largest commu\u00adnity of live language learners.<\/p>\n
The lion\u2019s share of the $70 million capi\u00adtal increase came from Hori\u00adzon Capi\u00adtal<\/strong>, a U.S. private equity firm that invests in fast-growing tech\u00adno\u00adlogy and export-orien\u00adted compa\u00adnies, with addi\u00adtio\u00adnal parti\u00adci\u00adpa\u00adtion from Reach Capi\u00adtal, Hoxton Ventures<\/strong> and other exis\u00adting inves\u00adtors<\/strong>. The new inves\u00adtor compo\u00adsi\u00adtion provi\u00addes a valuable balance of later-stage growth funding expe\u00adri\u00adence and EdTech exper\u00adtise to support the next step of Prep\u00adly\u2019s jour\u00adney. This includes Owl Ventures, which led the Series C 2022.<\/p>\n Prep\u00adly\u2019s sales have increased tenfold in the last three years. This is due in no small part to the fact that signi\u00adfi\u00adcant impro\u00adve\u00adments have been made to the product expe\u00adri\u00adence for both tutors and students. The B2B sector is also growing rapidly, with over 200 new contracts last year. Compa\u00adnies like Data\u00addog, GroupM and Bain take advan\u00adtage of the worl\u00add\u2019s largest selec\u00adtion of live foreign language tutors to make tangi\u00adble impro\u00adve\u00adments in their employees\u2019 commu\u00adni\u00adca\u00adtion skills. This simul\u00adta\u00adneously impro\u00adves self-confi\u00addence and produc\u00adti\u00advity levels within the supported teams.<\/p>\n In addi\u00adtion, last month Preply part\u00adne\u00adred with ETS (Educa\u00adtion Test\u00ading Service) to offer perso\u00adna\u00adli\u00adzed prepa\u00adra\u00adtion for the TOEFL iBT\u00ae. This is a stan\u00addar\u00addi\u00adzed proce\u00addure for deter\u00admi\u00adning the level of English that is reco\u00adgni\u00adzed by over 11,500 insti\u00adtu\u00adti\u00adons world\u00adwide. This offer is a novelty on the market, offe\u00adred in this form only by Preply.<\/p>\n 35,000 tutors to be equip\u00adped with AI technology<\/strong><\/p>\n While human-led lear\u00adning is always the focus at Preply, AI is incre\u00adasingly being used to support it. AI is helping to scale language lear\u00adning and improve the teaching of a new language in unpre\u00adce\u00adden\u00adted ways. This is a natu\u00adral exten\u00adsion of Prep\u00adly\u2019s approach to harnes\u00adsing machine lear\u00adning to perfectly match tutors and students, for example.<\/p>\n Preply has deve\u00adlo\u00adped a wizard that enables tutors to create a series of exer\u00adci\u00adses, grammar expl\u00adana\u00adti\u00adons, conver\u00adsa\u00adtion hangers and the like. Tutors use this assistant both during and between cour\u00adses to faci\u00adli\u00adtate home\u00adwork crea\u00adtion and lesson plan\u00adning. This allows them to focus ideally on more chal\u00adlen\u00adging class\u00adroom tasks that require more human input<\/p>\n In addi\u00adtion, Preply actively evalua\u00adtes data from lear\u00adning progress and lear\u00adning patterns to iden\u00adtify areas that lear\u00adners struggle with. The goal is to deve\u00adlop perso\u00adna\u00adli\u00adzed course plans and summa\u00adries that are tail\u00ado\u00adred to a lear\u00adner\u2019s exact needs, while provi\u00adding the tuto\u00adring commu\u00adnity with helpful insights into what makes for the best cour\u00adses and lear\u00adning outcomes.<\/p>\n Dmytro Boro\u00adday, Part\u00adner at Hori\u00adzon Capi\u00adtal<\/strong>, commen\u00adted, \u201cWe are exci\u00adted to part\u00adner with Prep\u00adly\u2019s visio\u00adnary co-foun\u00adders and their excep\u00adtio\u00adnal manage\u00adment team. Preply is one of the fastest growing EdTech compa\u00adnies in the world and a leader in live language learning.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPreply is the clear leader in live language lear\u00adning, an area for which we bring exten\u00adsive expe\u00adri\u00adence,\u201d said James Kim, Part\u00adner at Reach Capi\u00adtal,<\/strong>\u201cAI has enorm\u00adous poten\u00adtial to improve tutor effec\u00adti\u00adve\u00adness and lear\u00adner expe\u00adri\u00adence, and Preply is a global leader in buil\u00adding AI into the lear\u00adning journey.\u201d<\/p>\n Kirill Bigai, co-foun\u00adder and CEO of Preply, says, \u201cIt is a great achie\u00adve\u00adment that we were able to attract this injec\u00adtion of capi\u00adtal while still owning a lot of head\u00adroom and the majo\u00adrity of previous invest\u00adments; the result of rigo\u00adrous capi\u00adtal effi\u00adci\u00adency and a sharp focus on perfor\u00admance. The addi\u00adtio\u00adnal funding will enable us to expand our leader\u00adship posi\u00adtion in the market through AI-assis\u00adted tuto\u00adring. Thus, we offer a lear\u00adning expe\u00adri\u00adence that rapidly beco\u00admes a game chan\u00adger. Although our team is of course global today, for a company foun\u00added in Ukraine, with much of its rese\u00adarch and deve\u00adlo\u00adp\u00adment still taking place in Ukraine, it is truly a mile\u00adstone to be cele\u00adbra\u00adted. A mile\u00adstone that reflects the resi\u00adli\u00adence and deter\u00admi\u00adna\u00adtion of the Ukrai\u00adnian tech sector and all Ukrainians.\u201d<\/p>\n Pawel Chud\u00adzinski<\/strong>, foun\u00adding part\u00adner of Point Nine<\/strong>, is one of Prep\u00adly\u2019s German inves\u00adtors. He is plea\u00adsed with the current deve\u00adlo\u00adp\u00adments: \u201cWe are very proud to have been part of the Preply story since one of the first funding rounds. The team around Preply has built a very special ed-tech company with a lot of vision and entre\u00adpre\u00adneu\u00adrial skills. Preply is a global leader and growing rapidly. With its unique posi\u00adtio\u00adning and inno\u00adva\u00adtion, Preply still has a great deal of oppor\u00adtu\u00adnity to grow sustain\u00adably and rapidly in the perso\u00adna\u00adli\u00adzed lear\u00adning market and improve the lives of tutors and learners.\u201d<\/p>\n An insight into German language lear\u00adning trends<\/strong><\/p>\n German is the 4th most popu\u00adlar language globally on Preply, with a 36% increase year-over-year. The follo\u00adwing points provide an inte\u00adres\u00adt\u00ading insight into the signi\u00adfi\u00adcance of the German language on the plat\u00adform: 36% of German Preply users learn English, follo\u00adwed by German (20%), Spanish (10%) and French (6%). German is the most popu\u00adlar language in Germany after English, due in part to immi\u00adgra\u00adtion and foreign students. German Preply users use the plat\u00adform prima\u00adrily to prac\u00adtice their conver\u00adsa\u00adtion skills (31%); other popu\u00adlar reasons include advan\u00adcing one\u2019s career (27%) and a plan\u00adned move abroad (17%). About Preply About Hori\u00adzon Capital About Reach Capital <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Berlin \u2014 Ukraine-based Preply today reached a mile\u00adstone in its finan\u00adcing history by secu\u00adring an addi\u00adtio\u00adnal $70 million in equity and debt finan\u00adcing. As a result, Prep\u00adly\u2019s Series C is now at $120 million. With nearly 500 employees from 60 natio\u00adna\u00adli\u00adties in 30 count\u00adries world\u00adwide, Preply has become a global e\u2011learning power\u00adhouse, connec\u00adting 35,000 tutors [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49091,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[886,1364,1366,1369,1373,1374],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-en","category-featured-en","category-news-en","category-investors","category-venture-capital-en","category-people-en"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nAlthough born in Germany, 43% of all German tutors curr\u00adently teach from abroad, with Spain, Austria, Turkey, and the United States among the most common count\u00adries of resi\u00addence. \u2014 The tutor who taught the most German students in 2022 super\u00advi\u00adsed 239 diffe\u00adrent students.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>
\nPreply is an online language lear\u00adning market\u00adplace that connects tutors with hundreds of thou\u00adsands of lear\u00adners in 180 count\u00adries around the world. More than 35,000 tutors teach over 50 languages, supported by a machine lear\u00adning algo\u00adrithm that recom\u00admends the best tutor for each lear\u00adner. Foun\u00added in 2012 in the U.S. by three Ukrai\u00adni\u00adans, Kirill Bigai, Serge Lukya\u00adnov and Dmytro Volos\u00adhyn, Preply has grown from a three-person team to a company with nearly 500 employees of 60 diffe\u00adrent natio\u00adna\u00adli\u00adties. With offices in Barce\u00adlona, New York and Kiev, employees work in 30 count\u00adries world\u00adwide in Europe, the USA, Africa, Asia and Latin America.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>
\nHori\u00adzon Capi\u00adtal is a leading growth capi\u00adtal firm opera\u00adting in Europe and backed by more than 40 inves\u00adtors from the US, UK and Europe, with a capi\u00adtal base of over $630 billion and over $1.4 billion in total assets under manage\u00adment (AUM). The company is an active value-crea\u00adtion part\u00adner, inves\u00adt\u00ading in visio\u00adnary entre\u00adpre\u00adneurs who lead fast-growing compa\u00adnies. The main focus is on tech\u00adno\u00adlogy, e\u2011commerce and inno\u00adva\u00adtive indus\u00adtries. Hori\u00adzon Capi\u00adtal is known for its strong team, leader\u00adship, value crea\u00adtion and track record.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>
\nReach Capi\u00adtal is a leading global venture capi\u00adtal firm inves\u00adt\u00ading in the future of lear\u00adning and work. The company part\u00adners with entre\u00adpre\u00adneurs who specia\u00adlize in crea\u00adting tech solu\u00adti\u00adons across the lear\u00adning conti\u00adnuum, from early child\u00adhood to work\u00adforce deve\u00adlo\u00adp\u00adment. With $574 million across five funds, Reach Capi\u00adtal is actively inves\u00adt\u00ading in early-stage EdTech compa\u00adnies that are trans\u00adforming the global educa\u00adtion landscape.<\/p>\n