Preply

Preply (/ˈprɛp:lɪ/ PREP-lee) is an online educational platform that pairs students with private tutors remotely via online chat. It features a ranking algorithm that uses machine learning for classification and recommendation of tutors.[1]

Preply
Screenshot
Type of businessPrivate
Type of site
Educational
HeadquartersBrighton, Massachusetts,
 United States
Country of origin Ukraine
Founder(s)Serge Lukianov, Kirill Bigai, Dmytro Voloshyn
CEOKirill Bigai
IndustryOnline education
ServicesEducation service
Employees100
URLpreply.com
LaunchedNovember 1, 2012 (2012-11-01)
Current statusOnline

History

The company was launched in 2012 by Serge Lukianov, Dmytro Voloshyn, and Kirill Bigai (current CEO). Back then, Preply was chosen as one of the most promising startup companies in Ukraine[2] following an initial angel investment round of $180,000 from Semyon Dukach, Borya Shakhnovich, Vadim Yasinovsky, Dan Pasko, Torben Majgaard, and Vostok Ventures.[3][4]

The website, preply.com, was launched in November 2012.[5]

Preply initially launched as a marketplace for online SAT and ACT tutoring, later reaching 10,000 hours of studying monthly.[6]

Due to the broad global demand for English online tutoring, the startup decided to pivot. In April 2013, Preply re-launched its marketplace as an online language tutoring platform.

In 2013, the company started expanding into markets of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, later expanded into the Polish market.[3] In 2015, Preply received a $120,000 investment from TechStars.[7] In 2016, Preply entered the Brazilian market[8] and announced closing another round ($1,3 million).[9][10]

In June 2016, Preply has announced expanding its services into UK, Germany, and Spanish markets.[1]

Preply raised another $4 million of fundings in 2018. This round was led by Point Nine Capital (Berlin) and Arthur Kosten (Booking.com, 2003-2012), Mariusz Gralewski (DocPlanner, Poland), RTAventures VC (Poland) and Przemysław Gacek (Grupa Pracuj, Poland).[11][12]

The company headquarters is located in Kyiv (Ukraine). Offices are open in Berlin and Barcelona (since 2019).[13]

Services

As of Forbes' research, in October 2018, Preply had 47,000 registered tutors teaching 27 languages.[14]

In July 2017, as per the company's statistics, almost 100,000 students had found tutors using the platform.[15]

It is estimated that tutors give approximately 30,000 hours of lessons per month at a price varying between $2 and $100 per hour.[16]

References
  1. Lomas, Natasha (7 June 2016). "Preply pulls in $1.3M to expand its tutoring marketplace in Europe". TechCrunch. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  2. Большие надежды. ТОП-30 стартапов украинского интернета [The Most Promising Hopefuls. Top 30 Ukrainian Internet Start-ups] (in Ukrainian). 19 October 2012. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  3. "Ukrainian online tutoring platform Preply enters Polish market". Ukraine Digital News. 2 February 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  4. "Preply.com". CrunchBase. Retrieved July 18, 2017.
  5. Pashkovskaya, Elena (18 April 2013). "Connecting language tutors and students via Skype". Kyiv Post. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  6. "More than 10.000 hours of lessons a month are taught on Preply". 150sec. 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  7. "Preply: A global marketplace for tutoring · Showcases · TechUkraine". TechUkraine. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  8. Krasnikov, Denys (28 January 2016). "Ukrainian online tutoring platform enters Brazilian market". Kyiv Post. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  9. "Preply pulls in $1.3M to expand its tutoring marketplace in Europe". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  10. "A Global Marketplace for Tutoring Preply Announces the Details of a US$1,3 Million Deal". Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  11. "Preply raises $4 million to help young professionals speak in 40 languages". VentureBeat. 2018-07-24. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  12. "Online Tutoring: 9 Startups to Watch in 2018". Disruptor Daily. 2017-11-17. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  13. Wallen, Joe. "Ed-Tech Firm Preply Announces European Expansion After Successful Summer Funding". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  14. Wallen, Joe. "Ed-Tech Firm Preply Announces European Expansion After Successful Summer Funding". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-11-12.
  15. Editors, EuropaWire PR. "Preply, plateforme d'amélioration continue pour le tutorat et les études en ligne, arrive en France". EuropaWire.eu. Retrieved 2019-11-12.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  16. "Preply, plateforme d'amélioration continue pour le tutorat et les études en ligne, arrive en France" [Preply, a platform for continuous improvement, tutoring and online studies, arrives in France] (in French). EuropaWire. 9 February 2017. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.