Busuu.com, the language learning community, has raised an Angel round from FON-founder and serial entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky.
The Madrid-based startup is remaining mum about the size of the investment, however, but says that to-date Busuu has received less than €1m in funding. That’s a figure dwarfed by its main competitors. US-based Livemocha has raised $14m, while European rival Babbel has raised over €1m. On that note, Busuu claims to have recently overtaken market leader Livemocha in terms of traffic, citing data from Compete.
Talking up its underdog status, Busuu says that it is already cash-positive, bringing in “6 digit” euro of revenue per-month, although it’s worth noting that Babbel made its own cash-positive claims a year ago after dumping its freemium model in favor of a paid-for offering only.
In comparison, much of Busuu remains free to access. It offers audio-visual online courses for seven languages, including Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and English. In terms of user numbers, Busuu says it has 2 million members, with over 10,000 new users registering daily.
Busuu also claims that it was approached by top-tier VC firms but was hesitant to raise too much money given that revenue is healthy. Varsavsky had already been advising the startup and is said to be a good fit as an investor given his track record of supporting education. He recently made an $11.2m donation to Educ.ar, a foundation that aims to improve education through the use of new technologies.