Naspers leads $30-million funding round in Brainly

Naspers said on Thursday that it’s leading a new investment round, worth US$30-million, in Polish-founded peer-to-peer learning community Brainly. Other investors are Runa Capital and Manta Ray.

Brainly offers education resources to students, parents and teachers. The latest funding round brings the total investment in Brainly to $68.5-million.

“The current round of funding will be used to enhance Brainly’s user experience and create the next generation of the platform,” Naspers said in a statement. “In addition, the funds will help further expand its user base in the US, a key market for Brainly, which the company is already successfully monetising.”

The Poland company was founded in 2009 to recreate local student study groups in a global online community and has steadily grown to be a leading player in the educational technology space, Naspers said.

“With 150 million monthly active users, Brainly now reaches students, teachers and parents across 35 countries. In addition to the US, Brainly’s largest communities are in Russia, Indonesia, India, Turkey, Brazil and Poland.”

Students use Brainly to strengthen their skills across core subjects such as maths, history, science and social studies. The platform allows them to connect with their peers, subject matter experts, and professional educators to discuss their subjects and seek answers to questions.

US expansion

Brainly CEO Michał Borkowski said the company’s goal with the latest funding round is to extend access to all 76 million US students.

Brainly’s “crowd-learning” model combines online education, social media and machine learning. It has 150 million active monthly users.

In 2016 and 2017, Brainly closed $15-million series-B funding and $14-million series B-1 funding, led by Naspers and Kulczyk Investments respectively. Previous investors have also included General Catalyst Partners, Point Nine Capital, Runa Capital, and Learn Capital.  — © 2019 NewsCentral Media