BRAINS MAKE IT RAIN: Brainly, the developer of a social learning platform where people can ask and answer questions, has raised $30 million in a Series C round. The deal was led by Naspers, a South African media and tech conglomerate that also led its previous fundraise. Other investors in this round include Runa Capital and Manta Ray. To date, the Poland-based company has raised $68.5 million.
Founded in 2009, Brainly fancies itself as a “crowdlearning” platform with some gamification elements: users can earn points by answering homework questions posed by their peers. They can then use those points to ask other questions themselves. This model has drawn comparisons to Quora, another popular online question-and-answer community.
In the press announcement, the company boasts it currently reaches 150 million monthly active users across 35 countries. Brainly is free to use but serves ads to support its operations. There is also a monthly subscription, ranging from $2 to $5 per month, to remove those ads, VentureBeat reports.
According to the statement, the funding will be used to expand its footprint in the U.S. market, where the company has about 10 million users, Brainly CEO Michal Borkowski told TechCrunch.
Naspers has emerged as an active lead investor education companies in recent years, leading rounds for a pair of education companies in Codecademy and SoloLearn. It also led a $60 million round for Udemy. Last December, Naspers also led a $540 million investment in Byju’s, an India-based online education company that focuses on exam prep.
