LinguaLeo, a Russian startup with a web service that teaches English using popular TV serials, books and contextual dialogues, has just secured $3 million from Runa Capital, a major Moscow-based venture fund.
The site now serves 1.5 million registered users, of which 40,000 are paid subscribers, LinguaLeo founder Aynur Abdulnasyrov told East-West Digital News.
The startup’s financial results and valuation remain undisclosed.
Founded in 2009, the startup overcame early hard times in the absence of financial support. After monetization started in mid-2010, LinguaLeo secured a $200,000 investment from business angels Egor Rudi, Igor Ryabenkiy and Sergey Kuznetsov. Full recognition on the Russian innovation scene came in July 2011, when LinguaLeo won the prestigious BIT Contest.
Having raised significant funds – “our American dream,” says Abdulnasyrov – LinguaLeo intends to expand internationally. “Our first target will be Brazil, then Germany and finally South-East Asia – where we have observed a tremendous demand for learning English,” Abdulnasyrov adds. He claims LinguaLeo has trademarks for 22 countries.
LinguaLeo has now set itself the goal of “matching such world-renowned Russian IT companies as ABBYY, Parallels, Esset, Kaspersky and Badoo.”
“Not only would we like Russia to be recognized internationally as a great provider of technologies,” Abdulnasyrov goes on, “but our dream is that millions of people in the world will come to understand each other better. When people speak the same language, they get acquainted, fall in love, create families and build businesses more often – and they tend to misunderstand, accuse and fight each other less often.”
