History
The company was founded in 2012 by Ukrainian entrepreneurs Kirill Bigai, Serge Lukyanov and Dmytro Voloshyn. The website, preply.com, was launched in November 2013. [1]
On August 31, 2013, Preply became a leading Ukrainian educational startup after an initial angel investment of $180,000 from Semyon Dukach, Borya Shakhnovich, Vadim Yasinovsky, Dan Pasko, Torben Majgaard and Vostok Ventures. [8] [9]
In 2013, the company started its expansion into the markets of other Eastern European countries, namely Belarus, Kazakhstan, Poland and Russia. [9]
In 2016, the Preply platform was updated with a new ranking algorithm based on machine learning and used for classifying and recommending tutors. [10] Preply raised $1.3 million in funding from investors like Techstars, SMRK VCDigital and Arthur Kosten. The team experienced significant growth, with the employee count reaching 100, marking a seven-fold increase in less than three years. [11]
In 2018, Preply Classroom (formerly Preply Space) was launched as the all-in-one language learning ecosystem with the integrated video platform, online chat, screen sharing, and more. [12]
In 2019, Preply entered the Spanish market after opening an office in Barcelona, and from there it further expanded its services into British and German markets. [10]
In March 2021, Preply had accumulated a total of $50.6 million in investments through 8 funding rounds; in July 2022, an additional $50 million of investment were raised. [13] [14]
In August 2023, Preply extended their series C with an additional $70-million raise led by Horizon Capital and announced in tandem with the launch of an AI assistant. In that same year, the company opened an office in New York City. [15] [16]
Product
Preply’s product is based on AI-powered human tutoring. The company uses a machine-learning algorithm to increase matching efficiency between learners and tutors on a variety of parameters such as price, availability, country of birth, other languages spoken, learning objectives, and more. [17]
Preply offers classes in 50 languages, with tutors functioning as independent contractors who set their own rates and schedules. [18]
Pricing
Preply allows tutors on the platform to set their own pricing and charges tutors a commission for each lesson.
For every trial lesson with a new student Preply’s commission is 100%.
For all the subsequent lessons, Preply charges a percentage (18%-33%) of the hourly rate.
| Completed hours | Commission rate |
|---|
| 0 - 20 hours | 33% |
| 21 - 50 hours | 28% |
| 51 - 200 hours | 25% |
| 201 - 400 hours | 22% |
| 400+ hours | 18% |
In addition to the commission Preply charges, they also inflate the tutor's set pricing to make additional profits.
For example; a tutor with 150 hours who has set their pricing at $10 per 50 minutes may be marketed to students at $14 per 50 minutes. Preply then takes the $4 markup and $2.50 commission.
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