Listen to this articleBelow is our recent interview with Madeline Enos, Communications Leader and EdTech Expert at Preply:
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to your company?
A: Preply is a global language learning marketplace that brings together expert tutors and technology to help people make real progress. Our goal is simple, to help learners move forward with confidence and go further than they thought possible.
Today, we connect over 100,000 tutors with learners in more than 180 countries. Together, they take lessons across 90+ languages. Every lesson is personalized, so learners can progress in a way that fits their goals, their schedule, and their pace.
We started in 2012, founded by Kirill Bigai and Dmytro Voloshyn, with our early team and product built in Kyiv. Since then, we’ve grown into a global company, with hubs in Barcelona, New York, and London.
What makes Preply different is how we approach learning.
We believe real progress comes from working with a great tutor, someone who understands you, guides you, and keeps you motivated. Technology plays an important role, but it’s there to support that experience, not replace it. It helps tutors do what they do best, with better tools and insights.
At our core, we’re here to help people move forward, whether that means growing in their career, connecting across cultures, or simply feeling more confident speaking a new language.
Q: Can you tell us something more about your services?
A: Preply offers 1-on-1 lessons designed around real-life goals.
Learners choose a tutor based on what they want to achieve, from learning language and improving everyday conversation to preparing for a career move or an exam. We also offer tutoring for non-language subjects like math, physics, even music. Lessons are tailored to the needs of the learner, and evolve as they progress.
Alongside this, we’ve built AI-powered tools that support both learners and tutors. Preply features like lesson insights help track progress, highlight areas to improve, and suggest what to focus on next. Learners can continue practicing between lessons with personalized exercises. For tutors, this reduces admin and frees up more time to focus on teaching.
We operate on a subscription model because regular, consistent lessons are one of the strongest drivers of language learning progress. At the same time, learners have the flexibility to adjust lesson timing to fit their schedules, helping them stay consistent over time.
The result is a learning experience that feels personal, structured, and is focused on real progress, not just activity.
Q: What are your plans for the next 12 months?
A: We recently entered an exciting new chapter in our journey, raising a $150 million Series D round led by WestCap, which valued Preply at $1.2 billion and marks our move to unicorn status. This milestone reflects both the scale we’ve achieved and the growing global demand for high-quality, personalized learning.
Over the next 12 months, our focus is on optimizing how people learn on Preply, and helping more learners access high-quality, personalized education.
We’re continuing to invest in AI and data to better understand how people progress, and how we can support that more effectively. We’re also growing our product and engineering teams to keep perfecting the experience for both learners and tutors.
At the same time, we’re continuing to expand globally. There are still learners we haven’t reached yet, and we want to make it easier for them to find the right tutor and start learning.
Long term, our goal is simple: to build a learning experience that works for real people, at scale.
Q: What is the best thing about your organization that people might not know about?
A: One thing people often don’t see is how much we understand about how people actually learn.
With over 100 million lessons taught on our platform, we can see what helps people stay consistent, where they lose momentum, and what builds real confidence over time. That means we’re not guessing. We keep improving the experience based on what works, so learners keep moving forward.
Real progress comes from guidance, feedback, and conversation with a tutor. That’s what helps people speak with confidence. AI plays a role, but it supports the experience, it doesn’t replace it.
We’re also a global team, with people from many cultures and backgrounds. That shapes how we build Preply. It helps us create a learning experience that works for a global audience of real people, with different goals, schedules, and ways of learning.
Q: Anything else to add?
A: Language learning is often seen as a personal goal, but for many of our learners, it’s tied to something bigger.
We explored this in our 2026 Career and Global Mobility Report. For many people, learning a language is a step toward a new job, a move abroad, or a major life change.
Language can open doors, but it also builds confidence along the way.
That’s what motivates us at Preply. We’re not just helping people learn a language, we’re helping them move forward in ways that matter to them.
Activate Social Media:
