K-12 Dealmaking: Preply Raises $70M; Cooperative Strategies Acquired
Preply, an ed-tech company that uses live tutors to teach languages, raised an additional $70 million in equity and debt capital for its Series C, bringing the total funding round to $120 million.
The new capital raise was led by Ukraine-based private equity firm Horizon Capital, the firm announced. Reach Capital, Hoxton Ventures and other existing investors also participated. The initial leg of the Series C, raised in 2022, was led by Owl Ventures.
Preply, which was founded in Ukraine and is now headquartered in Massachusetts, has secured $171 million in funding over 10 rounds since it was founded in 2012, according to data from Tracxn.
The company reports employing 500 people across 30 countries, and said it has 35,000 tutors in its network. Preply has grown business-to-business partnerships as well, it said, citing deals with companies like Datadog, GroupM, and Bain & Co. to use its services to improve communication among teams.
Preply has also added artificial intelligence-powered tools into its platform to help tutors build exercises, explain grammar rules to students, and start conversations, it said.
The new cash infusion comes while Preply still has “plenty of runway” from the previous capital raise, which is largely still unspent, co-founder and CEO Kirill Bigai said in a statement.
The company’s financial situation is “a result of rigorous capital efficiency and a laser focus on performance,” he said, adding the new funds will help the company invest further in artificial intelligence.
Horizon Capital Partner Dmytro Boroday said in a statement that Preply is now “leading the live language learning category” and called the company’s performance in the past few years “superb.”
Cooperative Strategies acquired by Woolpert. Cooperative Strategies, which helps K-12 districts plan everything from educational programs to capital projects, was acquired by engineering firm Woolpert.
Ohio-based Woolpert said the deal will add Cooperative Strategies’ national education facility expertise to its own repertoire and will allow the two to merge analytics and geospatial capabilities that fuel the companies’ demographic, housing, and enrollment projection planning services.
Woolpert, which operates globally, mainly focuses on architecture, engineering, and geospatial services, as well as strategic consulting, for public, private, and government clients.
Cooperative Strategies CEO Scott Newell said in a statement that being a part of Woolpert would “drastically enhance and localize” Woolpert’s current program management and service offerings for its clients.
The company – which has offices in Ohio, California, Texas, and Colorado – built its relationship with Woolpert after the two collaborated on projects in Ohio, North Carolina, and Rhode Island.
Joining Woolpert felt like the next step, Newell added.
In a statement, Woolpert Chief Corporate Development Officer Neil Churman said combining the companies will “elevate and expand K-12 facility assessment, planning, funding, and program management for schools and districts across the country.”
Vietnamese Ed-Tech Startup Raises $6M. Vuihoc, an ed-tech company that offers a K-12 learning platform to Vietnamese students, raised $6 million in a Series A round.
The most recent funding, which follows a $2 million pre-Series A round announced in August 2022, was led by TNB Aura. TKG Taekwang, IBK-STIC Pioneer Fund, Do Ventures, BAce Capital, and Vulpes Ventures also joined in the round.
Vuihoc’s platform is designed to be aligned with Vietnam’s national curriculum and offer students a learning resource library of videos, as well as livestream lessons and one-on-one tutoring. It reports roughly 1.1 million students in the country use the platform.
In a statement, CEO Đỗ Ngọc Lâm said the funding will help them develop additional products and use artificial intelligence technologies to customize students’ learning experiences.
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See also:
- K-12 Dealmaking: Wayside Publishing Scoops Up Video-Based Language Tool
- K-12 Dealmaking: Newsela Leans Into Classroom Assessment With Acquisition of Formative
- K-12 Dealmaking: Kahoot Acquired by Investor Group That Includes Goldman Sachs
- K-12 Dealmaking: Lego Parent Company Acquires BrainPOP; Vulcan Invests in Vietnamese Startup