LinguaLeo
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Type of site | Online education |
|---|---|
| Available in |
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| Website |
lingualeo |
| Registration | Free |
| Launched | 1 March 2010 |
| Current status | Public |
Lingualeo is an educational online platform offering an English language learning service based on gamification methods. Initially a Russian-language service, it is now localized for Turkey and Brazil. As of December 2015, over 13 million people worldwide have used this online service to learn English, 9 million of which are from The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. In May 2017, Lingualeo announced its expansion to Spain and Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America. Total number of users reached 17,5 million people. Lingualeo is available as an app on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone. There is also a web version and as a browser extension for Google Chrome. The company is named after its mascot, Leo the Lion.
History
Lingualeo is Aynur Abdulnasurov’s second educational project. He sold his share in his first project called “Native Speakers Club” (which helped students find teachers) for $250,000 in order to start working on Lingualeo. The service was meant to be a set of creative approaches to learning English online.
In October 2009, Aynur Abdulnasurov traveled to Koh Chang, Thailand with a team of developers in order to work on the service. In the future, this practice became a kind of a tradition. They launched a blog on Habrahabr, describing the process of app development on a tropic island. Lingualeo first came into the spotlight thanks to this blog, which in turn became a prototype for many tech startups and company blogs. In Thailand they came up with an idea to use Leo the lion as a symbol of a student who gets lost in a jungle of new information.
The first version, released in March 2010, didn’t do enough to prompt people to upgrade to the paid service. The company failed to strike a deal with a huge linguistic company, so development was put on hold for six months. In November, Lingualeo received a high rating at Strogino technopark. At the Youth Innovation Congress in Perm, Aynur Abdulnasurov met Sergey Kuznetsov and Egor Rudy (founders of the educational project Eruditor Group), who introduced him to Igor Ryabenky, an angel investor. Lingualeo was valued at $1 million, and the company also raised $200,000 in funding from investors. Also in November, the platform was nominated for the Runet Prize for the first time.
In May 2011, Lingualeo was ranked eighth in a ranking of startup companies compiled by the recruiting agency Pruffi. From December to July, the number of users grew to 200,000 (compared to just 60,000 in December) and paid-service sales increased by 15 times since July. Lingualeo reached a break-even point. The company was named ‘best web-application’ by Mail.ru for the ‘Soft of the year - 2011’ Award. And in August 2011, Lingualeo received a 4.2 million ruble subsidy from The Department of Science, Industrial Policy and Entrepreneurship of the Moscow Government. By May 2012, Lingualeo was valued at $10 million. In June, the startup raised $3 million from the venture fund Runa Capital. A team of developers travelled to Sveti Stefan, Montenegro and created a new version of the service for Portuguese speakers in 2.5 months. Lingualeo launched its service in Brazil.
By the end of 2012, Lingualeo’s revenue grew sevenfold. According to Aynur Abdulnasurov, he remained the company’s controlling shareholder. The number of users reached 3 million people, including 100,000 Brazilian users.
In 2013, Lingualeo was listed in Kommersant’s ‘TOP Mobile Apps Pack’ ranking, took third place in Kommersant’s general startup research ranking, and won first place in the ‘Consumer Services’ category. The startup was nominated for the ‘Made in Russia’ award in the “Entrepreneurship” category and for the ‘Runet Prize’ award in the ‘Technologies and Innovations’ category. According to Wired, Lingualeo took seventh place in ‘the hottest Russian startup’ ranking. The service also received the Russian Startup Award in 2013.
In the beginning of 2014, Lingualeo’s founder Aynur Abdulnasurov was ranked 81st on the list of Russian internet-millionaires, compiled by ‘The Firm’s Secret’. The company announced a partnership with Evernote in May, and with TED Conferences in July. As a result, Lingualeo added grammar rules, vocabulary notes, and an interactive video player that enabled users to le.arn English by watching TED Talks.
In the fall, Lingualeo released a TOEFL prep program. By the end of October 2014, the number of users reached 10 million.
In April 2015, Lingualeo introduced its new B2B sales product based on the ilingin.com platform. The product let corporate customers’ staff members to get personalized learning programs that take into account industry specifics, job functions, and language skills of the employee. Lingualeo succeeded in raising $500,000 from Social Discovery Ventures and Runa Capital in May 2015. In August, Pavel Gushin (former Head Editor of Yandex.Maps) joined the team as a Vice-President of Development. In December, Lingualeo made it to Google’s ‘Best apps for Android 2015’ list in the ‘Made in Russia’ category. According to a report from 2015, the company reached a break-even point in July and saw a 7% revenue growth compared to 2014.
In March 2016 Dmitry Stavisky resigned as CEO and Irina Shashkina took over the position. On April 25, Lingualeo announced a relaunch of the platform: now, vocabulary and grammar skills sections are formed automatically. 30 new grammar rules were added to grammar trainings, so all basic grammar structures were covered with more than 500 examples for each rule. New vocabulary trainings were introduced - ‘Savanna’ (aimed at enlarging active vocabulary) and ‘Audiocall’ (aimed at training active listening skills). ‘Gold status’ was replaced by ‘Lingualeo Premium’ and together with ‘Lingualeo Basic’ they presented two ways to use the platform: paid and free, respectively.
In honour of its 6th birthday, Lingualeo held a competition and the winner was awarded two weeks of English learning at a language school in Manchester. In June, Lingualeo was listed in Google Play’s collection in the ‘Best from Russia’ category. In the beginning of 2017, a new section aimed at developing reading comprehension skills was launched on the Lingualeo app for iOS. The set of exercises suits everyone regardless of the user’s language level. In May 2017, Lingualeo announced its expansion to Spain and Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America.