[1] On August 31, 2013, Preply became a leading Ukrainian educational startup after an initial angel investment of $180,000 from Semyon Dukach, Borya Shakhnovich, Vadim Yasinovsky, Dan Pasko, Torben Majgaard and Vostok Ventures.

[8][9] In 2013, the company started its expansion into the markets of other Eastern European countries, namely Belarus, Kazakhstan, Poland and Russia.

[9] In 2016, the Preply platform was updated with a new ranking algorithm based on machine learning and used for classifying and recommending tutors.

[13][14] In August 2023, Preply extended their series C with an additional $70-million raise led by Horizon Capital and announced in tandem with the launch of an AI assistant.

The company uses a machine-learning algorithm to increase matching efficiency between learners and tutors on a variety of parameters such as price, availability, country of birth, other languages spoken, learning objectives, and more.