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Digital Future invests $1.7M in Attendify

Digital Future, a venture investment company is investing $1.7 million in Attendify, a leading SaaS platform for conference and event organizers. The deal consists of a bridge investment as well as the acquisition of an equity stake from an early private investment. Digital Future led the bridge round, which included follow-on participation from an existing investor. Funding will be used to further expand the company’s sales and marketing teams while doubling down on product development.

Oleksii Vitchenko, CEO of Digital Future:Attendify has a proven business model and a strong team with a rare combination of a clear strategic vision and slick execution. The company targets the multi-billion event tech market which remains extremely fragmented and offers a promising vision for an integrated, customer success driven solution. We believe Attendify is ready to scale and we are excited about the opportunity to fuel its growth through our financing and expertise.”

Attendify is headquartered in Palo Alto and launched its self-service mobile event app platform in 2013. With significant traction and a diverse customer base that ranges from non-profits to large enterprises like Google, Chrysler and AstraZeneca, Attendify is turning its sights on expansion. The company is opening a new office in Phoenix, Arizona to accelerate hiring for its sales and customer success teams, while continuing to aggressively invest in product innovation. Several major platform updates are forthcoming as the company expands its platform to serve new stakeholders including sponsors and exhibitors.

Michael Balyasny, CEO of Attendify: “We’re excited to team up with Digital Future as we tackle the next phase of growth and execute on our mission of bringing digital and event marketing closer together. We’ve made significant progress over the past year and there’s never been a more exciting time to be part of the $565 billion event industry. Mobile is dramatically changing the attendee experience and now that Attendify is powering thousands of events we’re in great position to continue to push the pace of innovation.

Digital Future has been very active making 8 seed and growth investments this year alone. Earlier this month, Digital Future participated in a $1 million funding round in tutoring platform Preply. In the beginning of 2016, it co-invested in a US$13.1 million funding round in YouAppi, which offers a mobile media buying platform.

Digital Future Joins an Investment Round of $1,3M for Preply

Digital Future joins a Series Seed investment round of US$1,3 million for Preply (Techstars’15), a global private tutoring platform that helps people find online and local tutors of foreign languages, science, humanities, and various hobbies. Besides Digital Future, the round is led by angel investors Mariusz Gralewski (DocPlanner, Poland), Przemysław Gacek (Grupa Pracuj, Poland), Arthur Kosten (Booking.com, 2003-2012), and Hedgehog Fund (Poland) with the participation of international venture companies RTAVentures VC, Xevin Investments (Poland), SMRK (Ukraine), Techstars (USA/Germany) and other angel investors.

Oleksii Vitchenko, CEO of Digital Future: “Preply dramatically transforms the teaching and learning process all around the globe. We are very impressed by the fact that Preply is a global project that covers 9 coutries. This was the key reason for us to join the round.”

Since 2015, edtech startup Preply has transitioned from the accelerator program Techstars Berlin, increasing the core team fivefold and revenues tenfold. This attracted high-profile angel investors and VC’s who initiated the seed funding. Funding will support the long-term development of Preply products for private teachers, and market reach growth in addition to fueling further international expansion. In order to accomplish this goal, Preply opens new vacancies.

Kirill Bigai, Co-Founder & CEO: “Everybody who supports Preply in its mission to make education affordable for all people is investing in a better world. I appreciate our new partners as well as the Preply team and community. This year’s deal proves our reputation for excellence and innovation in the education sector.”

Kyiv-based Preply is an educational platform for finding online and local tutors, and for providing services in the educational sector for teachers from all over the world. Preply was created in April 2013 and operates in five markets: Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Mexico, Brazil and is about to launch in Germany, UK, and Spain. Early on, Preply was personally funded by angel investor Semyon Dukach (Techstars Boston), and it is one of the Techstars Berlin’15 alumni cohort that raised a Seed Round.

Arthur Kosten, CMO at Booking.com (2003-2012): “In a world of rapid change, continuous education is very important. Private tutoring is a great way to learn new skills, but it’s a very fragmented market. Finding a tutor, booking and scheduling tutoring is very hard. Preply solves a lot of those problems. With limited resources the Preply team has built a great product and proved they could get traction in a lot of countries. I’m very excited to partner with them to take Preply to the next level.”

25 000 Preply tutors offer their services to more than 70 000 students: 27 world languages classes, 13 school subjects lessons, as well as acting, music, and art lessons. 10 000 hours of classes are held each month with the help of Preply.com.

Investors of Series Seed round:

Digital Future, Ukraine

Mariusz Gralewski (DocPlanner), Angel Investor, Poland

Przemysław Gacek (Grupa Pracuj), Angel Investor, Poland

Arthur Kosten, (Booking.com, 2003-2012), Angel Investor, Netherlands

Hedgehog Fund, Poland

RTAVentures VC, Poland

Xevin Investments, Poland

SMRK, Ukraine

Techstars, USA/Germany