---
title: 'Preply — company profile'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/companies/preply'
type: 'company'
updated: '2026-07-02'
---

# Preply

> A human-led, AI-enhanced online language-learning marketplace connecting 100,000+ tutors with millions of learners for live 1-on-1 lessons.

- **Website:** https://preply.com/
- **Type:** Private (Series D — unicorn)
- **Headquarters:** Barcelona, Spain (main hub; global offices in London, Kyiv, and New York)
- **Founded:** 2012
- **Founders:** Kirill Bigai, Dmytro Voloshyn
- **Valuation:** $1.2B
- **Total raised:** ~$300M
- **Latest round:** Series D · $150M · January 2026
- **Investors:** WestCap, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Horizon Capital, Owl Ventures, Hoxton Ventures, Full In Partners, Diligent Capital Partners, Point Nine Capital
- **Business model:** Two-sided marketplace (B2C) plus a growing B2B corporate arm; revenue from a commission on tutor lessons and enterprise contracts.
- **Industries:** Education
- **Open roles:** 117
- **Profile:** https://feeny.ai/companies/preply

## What they do

Preply is a two-sided online marketplace for live 1-on-1 language and skills tutoring. Learners browse tutors, take a trial lesson, and book recurring sessions in an integrated video classroom; Preply handles discovery, scheduling, and payments and takes a commission on lessons. It also runs Preply Business for corporate language training.

## Overview

**The tutor marketplace that just crossed a billion**

Preply is a bet that language learning still needs a human on the other end of the call. While Duolingo turned study into a solo game, Preply built a two-sided market that pairs learners in 180 countries with more than 100,000 tutors teaching 90-plus languages, one live lesson at a time.

Kyiv-founded in 2012 by Kirill Bigai and Dmytro Voloshyn and now run out of a Barcelona headquarters, the company crossed into unicorn territory in January 2026 when a $150M Series D landed at a $1.2B valuation. The pitch now is human-led, AI-enhanced: keep the tutor central, let AI do the scheduling, practice, and prep around them.

## What They Do

**Book a real tutor, on your schedule, in almost any language**

At its core Preply is a booking engine and video classroom wrapped around a huge supply of freelance tutors. A learner browses profiles, watches intro videos, takes a cheap or free trial lesson, then commits to recurring 1-on-1 sessions; the tutor handles the teaching while Preply handles discovery, scheduling, payments, and the classroom itself.

The catalog runs past 90 languages and well over a hundred subjects, which is the point: because tutors come from 180 countries, a learner can usually find a native speaker for something a self-study app would never cover.

## Problems

**Why an app alone was never going to teach you to speak**

Self-study apps are great at streaks and vocabulary and bad at the thing people actually want, which is talking to a person without freezing. Preply's answer is to make that person easy to find, cheap enough to try, and available across every time zone, so a learner in one country can practice with a native speaker in another at 6am or 11pm. It also solves the tutor's problem: instead of hunting for students, an independent teacher plugs into a global demand pool and lets Preply run the billing and calendar.

### Problems addressed

- Learners can't get real speaking practice from self-study apps
- Finding a qualified native-speaker tutor in a given language and time zone is hard
- Freelance tutors lack a global pipeline of students and handling of scheduling/payments
- Employers need structured, measurable language training for distributed teams

## Who It's For

**Adult learners chasing fluency, and companies chasing it for their teams**

The bread and butter is the motivated adult: someone prepping for an exam, an interview, a move abroad, or just conversational fluency, who wants a real teacher rather than a gamified app. Reviews skew most positive with exactly that crowd.

The faster-growing edge is B2B. Preply Business sells structured language training to mid-market and enterprise employers, with content customized by role and industry, flexible monthly or enterprise contracts, and reporting that ties lessons back to performance.

### Ideal customer profiles

- **Adult learner** — Wants conversational fluency, not just streaks; Prepping for exams, interviews, or a move abroad; Needs flexible scheduling across time zones
- **Freelance tutor** — Needs a steady flow of students; Wants scheduling and payments handled; Sensitive to commission taken on lessons
- **L&D / HR leader** — Needs measurable ROI on corporate training; Wants content tailored by role and industry; Needs flexible contracts that scale with headcount

## Products

**One marketplace, a B2B arm, and a growing layer of AI**

Preply is really one product with three faces. The consumer marketplace is the engine; Preply Business is the same tutoring wrapped in corporate reporting and contracts; and a widening band of AI tools sits on top of both, from an AI tutoring co-pilot to adaptive practice, meant to make the human lessons stick between sessions rather than replace them.

## Business Model

**Take a cut of every lesson, and rent seats to companies**

Preply makes money by sitting in the middle of every transaction. Learners commit to an auto-renewing 28-day subscription sized by how many hours a week they want; tutors set their own rates, roughly $3 to $40-plus an hour, and Preply skims a commission off the top.

That commission is where the tension lives. A new student's trial lesson is taken at 100%, and subsequent lessons start at a steep 33% cut that only falls to 18% once a tutor has logged 400-plus hours. It rewards loyalty and punishes newcomers, which is the single loudest complaint in tutor reviews. Preply Business layers a straighter B2B contract on top for the enterprise side.

### Plans

Learners pay per lesson through an auto-renewing 28-day subscription sized by how many hours a week they want (1 to 5). Tutors set their own rates, roughly $3 to $40+ an hour and averaging about $10 to $15, so cost is driven by the tutor you pick, not a fixed Preply price. Preply makes its money on the tutor side: it takes 100% of a new student's trial lesson, then a commission on every subsequent lesson that starts at 33% and falls with the tutor's total hours taught.

- **Learner subscription** — Varies by tutor rate · Individual learners
  Auto-renewing 28-day plan sized by weekly hours; tutors set their own rates.
  - Live 1-on-1 lessons in 90+ languages
  - Trial lesson to test a tutor first (often reduced or free)
  - Choose 1 to 5 hours per week
  - Integrated video classroom + scheduling
  - Lesson packages (e.g. 5/10/20 hours) at a lower per-hour cost
- **Preply Business** — Custom / enterprise contract · Mid-market and enterprise employers
  Corporate language training with role/industry-customized content and reporting.
  - Content customized by role, industry, or team
  - Flexible monthly or enterprise contracts
  - Progress and ROI reporting for managers
  - Scales with team size, no strict minimums

Good to know: Learner subscriptions auto-renew every 28 days; Trial-lesson refunds only if no lesson credits used and within 28 days of payment; Tutor commission is tiered: 33% new, 25% after 50 hours, 22% after 200, 18% after 400+; New-student trial lessons are taken at 100% commission from the tutor

## Competition

**The human-led lane in a market crowded with apps**

Preply's real rivals split in two. On one side sit the self-study apps like Duolingo and Babbel that win on scale and price but can't put a live human in front of you. On the other sit tutor marketplaces like iTalki, Verbling, and Cambly that play the same game Preply does. Its edge is the size of both sides of the market and a deliberate stance: keep humans central and use AI to sharpen the lessons, not to swap them out.

### Their edge

- **Live humans, not just an app** — Against Duolingo/Babbel, Preply offers real tutors and conversation practice self-study apps can't match.
- **Marketplace scale on both sides** — 100,000+ tutors and learners across 180 countries create network effects that thinner tutor marketplaces can't easily replicate.
- **Human-led, AI-enhanced stance** — AI is used to sharpen and support human lessons rather than substitute for the tutor, a deliberate contrast to AI-only tutoring.

### Where they're betting

- Deepen AI and data capabilities around human tutoring
- Grow Preply Business (B2B enterprise language training)
- Global hub and market expansion
- AI-augmented, more autonomous engineering

## Proof

**The numbers Preply leans on**

The traction story is the marketplace's scale: 100,000-plus tutors, 90-plus languages, and learners spread across 180 countries. On the trust side, Preply carries an 'Excellent' rating on Trustpilot, roughly 4.2 to 4.3 out of 5 across more than 14,000 reviews, which is a genuinely strong signal for a consumer marketplace of this size.

## What People Say

**Loved for the tutors, dinged for the support and the fees**

Learners consistently praise the same things: the quality of individual tutors, how easy it is to book, and how well it works for adult conversation practice and test prep. That's the durable part of the reputation.

The complaints are just as consistent. In 2026 the loudest gripe is over-reliance on AI chatbots for customer support, alongside subscription confusion, refund and lesson-expiry disputes, and slow service. Tutors add their own: the 33% starting commission and the unpaid trial lesson sting most for anyone new to the platform.

## Funding

**A $150M Series D, and a $1.2B valuation to grow into**

Preply hit unicorn status in January 2026 with a $150M Series D led by WestCap at a $1.2B valuation, with Goldman Sachs International as sole placement agent. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Horizon Capital joined alongside earlier backers.

The money is earmarked for AI and data work and for expanding product and engineering, which tracks with the company's public bet that AI extends human tutoring rather than undercuts it. The Ukrainian-founded framing followed the round everywhere it was covered.

## Team & Culture

**700 people, 62 nationalities, and a ship-first engineering culture**

Preply runs about 700 employees across 62-plus nationalities, with a main hub in Barcelona and offices in London, Kyiv, and New York on a hybrid model. Internally it leans on a set of principles with names like 'Care to change the world,' 'Now is the time,' and 'One Preply,' and its own 2025 survey put employee pride at 86%.

Engineering is where the culture gets specific. Teams ship 50 to 60 times a day on a Python/Django and React stack, make calls off A/B tests, and have pushed AI coding tools to 90%-plus adoption, now steering toward more autonomous, AI-augmented development.

## Compensation

**Equity across roles, with pay set locally**

Preply's job posts describe a full package rather than just a salary: equity, a competitive financial package, health insurance, a learning-and-development budget with dedicated time off, a monthly allowance for lessons on Preply itself, mental-health support, and Gympass-partnered wellness access in Spain. Disclosed salary bands are sparse in the data we have, so treat pay as set by role, level, and country rather than by a single published range.

## Outlook

**Human-led learning meets the AI it can't ignore**

Preply's next chapter is written into the Series D: pour money into AI and data while insisting the tutor stays at the center. The opportunity is a language-learning market it pegs in the tens of billions and a B2B arm that's growing faster than the consumer core. The risk is the same one its reviews already flag, that leaning on AI, especially for support, erodes the human touch that is the whole reason to pick Preply over an app.

## Company details

- **Mission:** Power people's progress — combining the flexibility of online learning with personalized lessons from expert tutors to create life-changing learning experiences.
- **Products:** Preply Marketplace, Preply Business, AI tutoring co-pilot
- **Customer segments:** Individual language learners (B2C), Adult learners and test-prep students, Freelance tutors (supply side), Mid-market and enterprise employers (Preply Business)
- **Buyers / users:** Adult learners pursuing fluency, exams, or relocation, Freelance language and skills tutors, L&D and HR leaders buying corporate training
- **Competitors:** Duolingo, Babbel, iTalki, Verbling, Cambly, Busuu, EF Corporate Learning
- **What sets them apart:** Human-led lessons where app-based rivals are self-study only; Large two-sided marketplace (network effects on both supply and demand); Native speakers across 90+ languages and 180 countries; AI positioned to enhance human tutoring, not replace it

## Open roles (117)

- [Data Engineer](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/90b07f6d-6ce4-46c6-8f04-f18f8bb54c89) — Kyiv, Ukraine
- [Data Engineer](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/7dc84853-6641-47c8-8073-d3aeb901e413) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Data Engineer](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/1d26149e-0a36-4c42-bf5f-8e22a59f1b1b) — London, United Kingdom
- [Junior Analytics Engineer](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/91f0eeb8-d670-4d3e-9cec-6d262be8ab17) — Kyiv, Ukraine
- [Senior Product Manager - AI Learning (Lesson Insights)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/0d29394d-9dcf-497b-8f4e-5fd5bf187097) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Senior Product Manager - AI Learning (Lesson Insights)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/e5deea53-bae5-4ead-9778-bb1cd844e86b) — London, United Kingdom
- [Junior Data Scientist (AI/ML)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/a9419d80-5cf1-4dba-a3d3-e90e5c464495) — Kyiv, Ukraine
- [Talent Acquisition Manager - Tech](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/f035456d-4172-4d4c-b475-d41499365499) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Head of Revenue Operations & Systems](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/57aab684-401f-42b0-8ca3-2ef9a9b79eaa) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Director of IT](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/79e7bc75-ca44-4da8-8571-927111d938a8) — Barcelona, Spain
- [UGC Editor](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/3b86049e-f2ac-4d98-ad59-e81e4e7b028c) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Digital PR Growth Manager](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/62c6b16d-1308-46ec-a2bb-ec06ccd347be) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Creative Project Coordinator](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/f09c8680-a217-40e4-9d2a-26c93ac1668c) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Senior Product Adoption & Engagement Specialist](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/837bb626-4e65-40f7-935a-60ccc2b63319) — Kyiv, Ukraine
- [Senior Data Engineer](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/5fdc6d1e-bbb2-493d-8ee4-647f3e9cf20d) — London, United Kingdom
- [Senior Manager Revenue Operations & Systems](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/a92c1eb1-95ef-478f-b9c0-172488bdd58b) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Senior Strategic Finance Manager - Product](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/18edf174-7e2d-4f75-809f-7bf96bee8984) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Fraud Operations Manager](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/b8f826ba-52e9-4491-bb0a-507f0158963b) — Kyiv, Ukraine
- [Social Media Manager](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/b54b2fd3-a512-4389-89d5-616f1c02660a) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Global Senior CRM & Lifecycle Designer](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/e592d94a-b6fe-4f76-be07-0c3f38a5029b) — London, United Kingdom
- [Sales Enablement Specialist](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/ac16bfd5-31a5-42a2-862d-d47a236b1826) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Fraud Operations Manager](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/7f8e087c-4b7b-4496-8756-a5e132633aa3) — London, United Kingdom
- [Engineering Manager](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/a7fe8e13-5532-49b7-829a-98105ae4635b) — Remote
- [Engineering Manager](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/002fd527-1350-46c4-9882-427746a85dda) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Marketing Analytics & Finance Growth Senior Manager, B2C](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/04d18271-5669-4f42-acb2-1811f35f4af9) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Head of Marketing Expansion](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/d49851fe-7069-4b9e-8c08-6f08172d2e2e) — London, United Kingdom
- [Senior Data Analyst - Fraud Prevention](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/ca301c28-639b-4662-888e-b7f70f3feeec) — Kyiv, Ukraine
- [Fraud Operations Manager](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/03d72ff8-69e0-455b-b9a1-8262d251ace1) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Talent Development Lead](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/71c162df-7f43-49f4-b851-3bff73549d73) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Senior Data Scientist - Insights](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/b208c4e1-8b65-412f-af09-aeb53c8f6fbd) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Senior Data Scientist](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/e593140e-1ddc-4ab0-8584-96b26c2132de) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Staff Platform Engineer](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/08d65013-3492-4ed7-b1c7-4ffd2d3f342e) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Senior Tutor Development Specialist](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/cbeb0281-4c12-43f3-8970-d399c5e36689) — London, United Kingdom
- [Staff Analytics Engineer](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/8d2613dd-75de-4207-9296-af994e4f10e6) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Supply Operations Projects Lead](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/47fa0e19-1a96-43f2-ba09-ac9327145fd5) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Senior Analytics Engineer](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/c0af4bdc-108c-405c-9425-2a15e9dc4c94) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Senior Data Analyst - Marketplace Analytics](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/e41db749-c3d2-4735-863c-087df45e4866) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Supply Strategic Projects Lead](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/b6f3b6dd-8a49-4ec8-b2ee-fcac5a7362ce) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Director B2B Finance](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/3009cf1c-0136-4937-873b-8abca9f3d66e) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Staff Back-end Engineer](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/e4db43ae-333b-48cc-a31c-4e14040cd7fe) — Remote
- [Staff Data Scientist](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/56258789-bb1b-452a-8353-a352099d6e9f) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Senior Platform Software Engineer](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/0cd0548e-c501-46c4-9225-15e2ebf97b68) — London, United Kingdom
- [Supply Strategic Projects Lead](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/04aff791-0506-45da-98f9-f41d73677af8) — Kyiv, Ukraine
- [Senior Product Adoption & Engagement Specialist](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/fb12e1bb-8ccb-41c8-9da8-0b1aca2886f4) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Senior II Security Engineer - Platform](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/3c30ae7f-dff5-4e1a-bd71-8ab82969bc7b) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Senior Data Analyst - Expansion](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/ee802349-20a3-416a-9b02-a7e863b8d9ad) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Staff Machine Learning Ops Engineer](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/1f864bc1-1fbe-45cf-a3e5-a77658b5c5ac) — Barcelona, Spain
- [CRM Marketer](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/f539ea17-03c6-462b-95e1-db82c38799ba) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Senior Data Analyst - Fraud Prevention](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/95232647-0b16-48b0-b0a5-98060c3fca0b) — Barcelona, Spain
- [Senior Applied AI Scientist (AI Marketplace)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/preply/e51600bd-c014-4b1b-8d52-14a8ee6bb58f) — Barcelona, Spain

_…and 67 more at https://feeny.ai/companies/preply/jobs_

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_Source: https://feeny.ai/companies/preply · profile updated 2026-07-02_