Berlin — Ukraine-based Preply today reached a mile­stone in its finan­cing history by secu­ring an addi­tio­nal $70 million in equity and debt finan­cing. As a result, Preply’s Series C is now at $120 million. With nearly 500 employees from 60 natio­na­li­ties in 30 count­ries world­wide, Preply has become a global e‑learning power­house, connec­ting 35,000 tutors with the world’s largest commu­nity of live language learners.

The lion’s share of the $70 million capi­tal increase came from Hori­zon Capi­tal, a U.S. private equity firm that invests in fast-growing tech­no­logy and export-orien­ted compa­nies, with addi­tio­nal parti­ci­pa­tion from Reach Capi­tal, Hoxton Ventures and other exis­ting inves­tors. The new inves­tor compo­si­tion provi­des a valuable balance of later-stage growth funding expe­ri­ence and EdTech exper­tise to support the next step of Preply’s jour­ney. This includes Owl Ventures, which led the Series C 2022.

Preply’s sales have increased tenfold in the last three years. This is due in no small part to the fact that signi­fi­cant impro­ve­ments have been made to the product expe­ri­ence for both tutors and students. The B2B sector is also growing rapidly, with over 200 new contracts last year. Compa­nies like Data­dog, GroupM and Bain take advan­tage of the world’s largest selec­tion of live foreign language tutors to make tangi­ble impro­ve­ments in their employees’ commu­ni­ca­tion skills. This simul­ta­neously impro­ves self-confi­dence and produc­ti­vity levels within the supported teams.

In addi­tion, last month Preply part­ne­red with ETS (Educa­tion Test­ing Service) to offer perso­na­li­zed prepa­ra­tion for the TOEFL iBT®. This is a stan­dar­di­zed proce­dure for deter­mi­ning the level of English that is reco­gni­zed by over 11,500 insti­tu­ti­ons world­wide. This offer is a novelty on the market, offe­red in this form only by Preply.

35,000 tutors to be equip­ped with AI technology

While human-led lear­ning is always the focus at Preply, AI is incre­asingly being used to support it. AI is helping to scale language lear­ning and improve the teaching of a new language in unpre­ce­den­ted ways. This is a natu­ral exten­sion of Preply’s approach to harnes­sing machine lear­ning to perfectly match tutors and students, for example.

Preply has deve­lo­ped a wizard that enables tutors to create a series of exer­ci­ses, grammar expl­ana­ti­ons, conver­sa­tion hangers and the like. Tutors use this assistant both during and between cour­ses to faci­li­tate home­work crea­tion and lesson plan­ning. This allows them to focus ideally on more chal­len­ging class­room tasks that require more human input

In addi­tion, Preply actively evalua­tes data from lear­ning progress and lear­ning patterns to iden­tify areas that lear­ners struggle with. The goal is to deve­lop perso­na­li­zed course plans and summa­ries that are tail­o­red to a learner’s exact needs, while provi­ding the tuto­ring commu­nity with helpful insights into what makes for the best cour­ses and lear­ning outcomes.

Dmytro Boro­day, Part­ner at Hori­zon Capi­tal, commen­ted, “We are exci­ted to part­ner with Preply’s visio­nary co-foun­ders and their excep­tio­nal manage­ment team. Preply is one of the fastest growing EdTech compa­nies in the world and a leader in live language learning.”

“Preply is the clear leader in live language lear­ning, an area for which we bring exten­sive expe­ri­ence,” said James Kim, Part­ner at Reach Capi­tal,“AI has enorm­ous poten­tial to improve tutor effec­ti­ve­ness and lear­ner expe­ri­ence, and Preply is a global leader in buil­ding AI into the lear­ning journey.”

Kirill Bigai, co-foun­der and CEO of Preply, says, “It is a great achie­ve­ment that we were able to attract this injec­tion of capi­tal while still owning a lot of head­room and the majo­rity of previous invest­ments; the result of rigo­rous capi­tal effi­ci­ency and a sharp focus on perfor­mance. The addi­tio­nal funding will enable us to expand our leader­ship posi­tion in the market through AI-assis­ted tuto­ring. Thus, we offer a lear­ning expe­ri­ence that rapidly beco­mes a game chan­ger. Although our team is of course global today, for a company foun­ded in Ukraine, with much of its rese­arch and deve­lo­p­ment still taking place in Ukraine, it is truly a mile­stone to be cele­bra­ted. A mile­stone that reflects the resi­li­ence and deter­mi­na­tion of the Ukrai­nian tech sector and all Ukrainians.”

Pawel Chud­zinski, foun­ding part­ner of Point Nine, is one of Preply’s German inves­tors. He is plea­sed with the current deve­lo­p­ments: “We 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 entre­pre­neu­rial skills. Preply is a global leader and growing rapidly. With its unique posi­tio­ning and inno­va­tion, Preply still has a great deal of oppor­tu­nity to grow sustain­ably and rapidly in the perso­na­li­zed lear­ning market and improve the lives of tutors and learners.”

An insight into German language lear­ning trends

German is the 4th most popu­lar language globally on Preply, with a 36% increase year-over-year. The follo­wing points provide an inte­res­t­ing insight into the signi­fi­cance of the German language on the plat­form: 36% of German Preply users learn English, follo­wed by German (20%), Spanish (10%) and French (6%). German is the most popu­lar language in Germany after English, due in part to immi­gra­tion and foreign students. German Preply users use the plat­form prima­rily to prac­tice their conver­sa­tion skills (31%); other popu­lar reasons include advan­cing one’s career (27%) and a plan­ned move abroad (17%).
Although born in Germany, 43% of all German tutors curr­ently teach from abroad, with Spain, Austria, Turkey, and the United States among the most common count­ries of resi­dence. — The tutor who taught the most German students in 2022 super­vi­sed 239 diffe­rent students.

About Preply

Preply is an online language lear­ning market­place that connects tutors with hundreds of thou­sands of lear­ners in 180 count­ries around the world. More than 35,000 tutors teach over 50 languages, supported by a machine lear­ning algo­rithm that recom­mends the best tutor for each lear­ner. Foun­ded in 2012 in the U.S. by three Ukrai­ni­ans, Kirill Bigai, Serge Lukya­nov and Dmytro Volos­hyn, Preply has grown from a three-person team to a company with nearly 500 employees of 60 diffe­rent natio­na­li­ties. With offices in Barce­lona, New York and Kiev, employees work in 30 count­ries world­wide in Europe, the USA, Africa, Asia and Latin America.

About Hori­zon Capital

Hori­zon Capi­tal is a leading growth capi­tal firm opera­ting in Europe and backed by more than 40 inves­tors from the US, UK and Europe, with a capi­tal base of over $630 billion and over $1.4 billion in total assets under manage­ment (AUM). The company is an active value-crea­tion part­ner, inves­t­ing in visio­nary entre­pre­neurs who lead fast-growing compa­nies. The main focus is on tech­no­logy, e‑commerce and inno­va­tive indus­tries. Hori­zon Capi­tal is known for its strong team, leader­ship, value crea­tion and track record.

About Reach Capital

Reach Capi­tal is a leading global venture capi­tal firm inves­t­ing in the future of lear­ning and work. The company part­ners with entre­pre­neurs who specia­lize in crea­ting tech solu­ti­ons across the lear­ning conti­nuum, from early child­hood to work­force deve­lo­p­ment. With $574 million across five funds, Reach Capi­tal is actively inves­t­ing in early-stage EdTech compa­nies that are trans­forming the global educa­tion landscape.