Fluentify
Fluentify is an online language tutoring website. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in London, United Kingdom, the company is privately owned and operated by Blinguo LTD.[1] The platform offers online language classes with selected native speakers.
History
Fluentify was founded in February 2013 and launched into public beta in May 2013. The same month, the company was selected to join London-based Accelerator Academy for three months of training. In March 2014, Fluentify announced that it had raised $410k in angel funding from the banker Stefano Marsaglia.[2] Marsaglia is a prominent M&A banker, currently the co-head of corporate and investment banking at Mediobanca,[3][4] Italy’s biggest publicly traded investment bank.[5]
In July 2014 the company opened the first international office in Turin, promising to create a development hub in Italy and hire 20 developers in 12 months,[6] in the following years Fluentify never employed more than a few developers.
Working as a tutor
Fluentify runs on a marketplace platform model where it connects students and tutors and enables transactions without hiring any tutor individually.[7] Unlike traditional language schools and online tutoring websites, Fluentify scales not by increasing its inventory or number of employees but by increasing the number of students and tutors and matching them with each other.[8] The company claims that top tutors can earn up to £2,500 per month.[9]
Media attention
In September 2013, the company was selected from more than 200 nominations to take part in the TechCrunch Competition in Rome.[10] GiPStech, a startup that developed an advanced indoor positioning technology based on the world’s geomagnetic field, won the $50k prize.[10] In January 2014 the company was shortlisted for the BT Infinity Lab program, a competition promoted by the British multinational telecommunications company BT Group.[11]
Fluentify and its founders have received consistent media coverage in Italy. In April 2014 two of its founders were invited as guests in the prime time TV program Che tempo che fa, one of the most popular shows in Italy hosted by Fabio Fazio.[12][13]
In May 2014, the monthly tech magazine Wired selected Fluentify as one of the 6 top tools to learn a language online.[14]
References
- ↑ "Company Overview of Blinguo LTD". Bloomberg Businessweek. http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=261226340. Retrieved on 31 July 2014.
- ↑ "Language Learning Platform Fluentify Takes In $410K Angel Investment". TechCrunch. 31 March 2014. https://techcrunch.com/2014/03/31/fluentify-angel/. Retrieved on 31 July 2014.
- ↑ "Mediobanca Names Barclays’ Marsaglia Investment Banking Co-Head". Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-03/mediobanca-names-barclays-marsaglia-investment-banking-co-head.html.
- ↑ "Mediobanca hires veteran adviser to expand European operations". Financial Times. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f3aff70c-5b72-11e3-a2ba-00144feabdc0.html.
- ↑ "A little less tangled, Italian finance is at last being reshaped". The Economist. https://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21580156-italian-finance-last-being-reshaped-little-less-tangled.
- ↑ "Fluentify: “Torniamo in Italia e assumiamo 20 persone"". Linkiesta. http://www.linkiesta.it/fluentify-offre-20-posti-di-lavoro.
- ↑ "Fluentify - Terms & Conditions". Company website. https://www.fluentify.com/. Retrieved on 1 August 2014.
- ↑ Choudary, Sangeet (1 August 2014). "A Platform Thinking Approach to Innovation". WIRED. https://www.wired.com/2014/01/platform-thinking-approach-innovation/.
- ↑ "Company blog - How to become a tutor". Company blog. http://www.fluentify.com/blog/?p=97. Retrieved on 1 August 2014.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Butcher, Mike (1 August 2014). "GiPStech, A Radical Indoor Location Startup, Wins TechCrunch Italy Competition". TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2013/09/27/gipstech-a-radical-indoor-location-startup-wins-techcrunch-italy-competition/.
- ↑ "BT Infinity Lab finalists revealed". British Telecom. 27 January 2014. http://home.bt.com/techgadgets/technews/bt-infinity-lab-finalists-revealed-11363870485085.
- ↑ Lombardo, Silvia (28 April 2014). "Il made in Italy a Londra: con Fluentify l'inglese lo impari online da artisti e professionals della City". Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.it/silvia-lombardo/fluentify-londra_b_5224959.html.
- ↑ Iovine, Giorgia (27 April 2014). "Che Tempo che fa, 27 aprile 2014, tutte le interviste". TV Blog. http://www.tvblog.it/post/571263/che-tempo-che-fa-puntata-27-aprile-2014-diretta-ospiti.
- ↑ Foggetti, Luigina (22 May 2014). "Sei modi per imparare le lingue online". Wired. http://www.wired.it/internet/web/2014/05/22/sei-modi-per-imparare-le-lingue-online/.