Online Language Learning App Preply Raises $70M To Grow Its Platform With AI

Preply, an online language learning marketplace connecting tutors to hundreds of thousands of learners in 180 countries worldwide, has recently announced that it has raised $70 million (approximately €62.4M) in equity and debt, bringing its Series C round to $120 million.

Co-founded by Dmytro Voloshyn, Kirill Bigai, and Serge Lukianov in 2012, Preply aims to shape the future of effective learning. The platform uses a machine learning algorithm to efficiently pair tutors with learners worldwide, making more innovative connections and ‘cracking the code of effective language learning’. The company 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 claims more than 35,000 tutors teach over 50 languages.

Commenting on the investment, 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. The firm has recently 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.

Lenna Koszarny, Founding Partner & CEO of Horizon Capital, commented:

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. We are delighted that our capital will fuel future R&D, driving growth and high impact by creating jobs, promoting entrepreneurship, supporting tech sector development, and contributing to Ukraine’s ongoing economic resilience.

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