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The company will use the funds to scale the marketplace, mainly in North America, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the UK, to roll out an array of new tools, assessments, and homework, and to develop its mobile offering, streamlining the Android and iOS app
Fremont, CA: Education tech firm Preply secured USD 10 million in a Series A round of financing led by Hoxton Ventures, with participation from European VC funds Point Nine Capital, All Iron Ventures, The Family, EduCapital, and Diligent Capital. Preply is one of the fastest-growing ed-tech firm backed by Europe's most prominent investors. Since 2012, the company is building a global human-to-human online tutoring marketplace with locations in Kyiv, Barcelona, and Berlin.
The funding round also included several individual angel investors including Arthur Kosten of Booking.com, Gary Swart, former CEO of Upwork, David Helgason, Founder of Unity technologies, and Daniel Hoffer, Founder of Couchsurfing. The company will use the funds to scale the marketplace, mainly in North America, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and the UK, to roll out an array of new tools, assessments, and homework, and to develop its mobile offering, streamlining the Android and iOS app. The new financing round brings Preply's total raised capital since inception to USD 15.6 million, nearly doubling its previous investment total.
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[vendor_logo_first]Preply uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to match tutors and language learners. Prior to this month, the company had a network of tens of thousands of learners with 10,000 verified tutors teaching over 50 languages globally. In recent weeks, the number of hours of tutoring purchases on the company's platform has spiked by 50 percent. Preply's growth in Italy has nearly tripled, almost doubled in Span, and increased by 130 percent in France. The startup has also experienced a surge in the number of tutors registered on its platform by almost 80 percent. The number of tutors in the U.S. and Italy has nearly doubled, tripled in Spain and spiked by 140 percent in Spain.
Currently, Preply has 125 employees from 25 different nations based in Kyiv and Barcelona and intends to hire another hundred in the coming 12 months. The company's revenue has grown by ten times over the last three years. The majority of its users are people needing to learn another language because they are moving abroad for work. Others use it recreationally. Over time, 2 million courses have been taken via its platform.
See also: Top Artificial Intelligence Companies for Education
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