Duolingo Rival Preply Receives $70 Million Investment

Preply, a language learning platform that connects people with teachers, said it has raised $70 million in new capital to increase its use of artificial intelligence. The Ukrainian-founded but US-based company said it raised the funds by issuing new equity and debt. Preply's founders include Ukrainian entrepreneurs Kirill Bigai, Dmytro Voloshyn and Serge Lukianov.

Also Read: Tractable Receives $65 Million Investment

Preply

The equity portion was led by Horizon Capital, a startup capital firm focused on investing in emerging entrepreneurs, especially Ukrainians. It was also backed by Reach Capital, Hoxton Ventures and others. The financing adds to the $50 million Series C financing round Preply raised last year. This brings its total financing to over $170 million. What do we know about Preply? It is a marketplace platform that connects people with real teachers to help them learn new languages. Each teacher on Preply posts a profile that students can view and sets an hourly rate for lessons. Preply gets a discount on the hourly rates that teachers charge.

Preply also sells to large companies such as Datadog, GroupM and Bain, who use it to improve their teams' foreign language skills. It is worth noting that the company is not yet profitable, despite a tenfold increase in revenues over the last three years. Kirill Bigai, Preply's co-founder and CEO, said the company will use the funds to "extend our leadership in the [online language learning] category through AI-powered human instructors and rapidly deliver a game-changing learning experience." "While today's team is truly global, as a Ukraine-based company with significant R&D in Ukraine, this is a milestone to celebrate. It reflects the resilience and determination of the Ukrainian tech sector and all Ukrainians," he added.

Preply said it already uses machine learning to better match learners and tutors. Now it is incorporating more AI into its offering, launching an AI assistant to help tutors find exercises, grammar explanations and conversation starters.