Brainly was founded in 2009 with an idea to make learning and collaboration online as engaging, effective and rewarding as the lively and informative are discussions inside and outside of a classroom. The company recently has raised $15 Million funding round to give every student in the world access to personalized learning in a collaborative community. Below is our interview with Jakub Piwnik, Communications Manager at Brainly:
Q: What is Brainly? Could you tell us Brainly’s startup story?
A: Started in 2009, Brainly began with an idea that learning and collaboration online should be as engaging, effective and rewarding as the lively and informative discussions that happen inside and outside of a classroom. Today, that has resulted in a platform that empowers students to help one another answer questions around class assignments or discussions, or to simply learn more about a specific subject matter that they’re curious about. Students gain points for answering questions from their fellow students, which they can then cash in for the ability to post more questions of their own. This natural cycle of engagement has resulted in over 26 million answered questions at a rate of 1,000,000 questions per day.
Brainly has grown globally to reach over 60 million users in 35 countries—12 languages—throughout the United States, Europe, South America and Asia, including Russia, Indonesia and Brazil. This new investment will be used to accelerate Brainly’s global growth and focus on the U.S. market, while adding new advancements in machine learning technologies to the current platform, helping to deliver a more exciting, accurate and personalized experience for middle and high school students.
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Q: How do you see future development of social learning networks and their impact on education system?
A: We believe that peer-to-peer learning and student collaboration is one of the most effective ways to increase curiosity, build confidence and engage with other like-minded students around the world. Every student has a strength that they can share with others.
Q: What’s the best thing about Brainly that people might not know about?
A: For me it’s our community. When I joined the company in 2012 I was surprised that there are more answers than questions in the knowledge base. It’s amazing that students enjoy competing with one another even though they’re actually helping each other out with school problems. Some of the most active users spend hours every day answering questions. The best of them become moderators, who have some special powers to moderate the community and the knowledge base.
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Q: You’ve recently raised a $15 million funding round, what are your plans?
A: The investments reinforce Brainly’s success and growth globally, and ambition to give every student in the world access to personalized learning in a collaborative community. The $15M Series B round of funding is led by the global internet and entertainment group, Naspers, to bring total funding from existing investors including General Catalyst Partners, Point Nine Capital, Runa Capital and Learn Capital to $27M.
With this investment we plan to focus on product development in order to build a more exciting and personalized learning experience for our students and continue to grow our global user base.
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Q: How would you convince the reader to start using Brainly?
A: In every student’s life there comes a moment when they get stuck on a problem and can’t find a way out. They may be unable to receive help from their parents, siblings, or even teachers. Not everyone can benefit from private tutoring. Brainly is an out-of-classroom solution that helps students receive help when they need it.
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