The German online tutoring platform, Sofatutor.com, has raised a new round led by Acton Capital Partners, with participation from existing investors J.C.M.B. Beteiligungs GmbH and “VC Fonds Kreativwirtschaft Berlin” (managed by IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft). The size of this new round isn’t being fully disclosed but is said to be in the “mid single-digit million Euro” range*
Sofatutor says it will use the additional capital to “tap new market segments and regions”, including expanding the age-range of the students it targets by covering the elementary school curriculum, meaning that it now spans the entire school curriculum in Germany. It also plans to break into other European markets, outside its native Germany.
Founded in 2008, Berlin-based Sofatutor offers learning content through more than 7,700 videos. It claims 30,000 users — pupils and students throughout Germany — who use the site to help them with their homework and prepare for exams. This is delivered via interactive tests on the contents of each video combined with a live chatroom where professional teachers are available to answer students’ questions. It charges a subscription for its tutoring service which, depending on requirements, ranges from three to twelve months, starting from 14.95 euros per month.
Talking up the investment, Christoph Braun, Managing Partner at Acton, says in a statement: “In the next few years, the education market will become one of the key markets and, to date, it has hardly been digitized. Sofatutor.com has established itself on the German tutoring market as a leading provider. Our investment will allow us to support the sofatutor.com team in making their range of offers more attractive to users by adding new products and in successfully breaking into other European markets.”
* I understand the desire for startups not to disclose the size of a funding round, in the belief that it helps them compete. But things are getting a tad ridiculous when we start describing an investment as “mid single-digit” millions. Or maybe it’s just me.