Edtech outfit Preply has secured a further $35 million of funding which will be used to help strengthen its foothold in the Middle East.
The Series B funding exceeds the platform’s cumulative fundraising efforts since 2013.
The online learning platform, which connects more than 40,000 bookable tutors teaching 50 languages to hundreds of thousands of learners in 180 countries worldwide, saw its overall revenues quadruple across the board in 2020 as a result of the shift to remote learning caused by the Covid-19 crisis.
Kirill Bigai, CEO of Preply, said “This new funding will help us tackle a variety of strategic priorities, as we plan to double our workforce across all divisions and locations. We’ll add more value for both students and tutors by improving support systems and amplifying the classroom and curriculum experience which has proved so valuable already.”
According to a release from the company, the United Arab Emirates is a key market for Preply. English is the most popular language of study in the UAE and accounts for more than 25 percent of the demand from learners, while other popular languages include Arabic, French, Spanish, and German. Beyond those more popular language selections, Preply also has UAE residents learning Romanian, Finnish and Vietnamese.
Kirill Bigai, CEO of Preply.
In addition, Egypt is the most favoured country of birth for tutors teaching on Preply, as ranked by UAE learners. This is closely followed by the UK, France, and the US. In terms of cities, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the biggest cities for UAE learners on Preply, representing 75 percent of the country’s traffic combined.
The funding round was co-led by Owl Ventures and Full In Partners, with participation from previous investors, including: Point Nine Capital, Hoxton Ventures, as well as EduCapital, All Iron, Diligent Capital and Evli Growth Partners. Angel investors Niklas Ostberg, co-founder and CEO of Delivery Hero; Arthur Kosten, co-founder of Booking.com; Przemyslaw Gacek, co-founder of Grupa Pracuj; and David Helgason, co-founder of Unity Technologies.
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