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