Two companies from Eastern Europe are featured on the list of great helpers in learning by Yahoo. Brainly, founded in Poland as Zadane.pl, meaning ‘homework’ in Polish, and Apalon, headquartered in Belarus, got to the Yahoo! Tech’s list of apps that make learning easier and more engaging.
APALON
Founded in 2007, Apalon is a leading developer of mobile apps that reside in iOS top charts, and its virtual Calculator Pro is on the same ‘learning-made-easier’ Yahoo list. The app has more than 12 million combined downloads across different platforms and offers basic and scientific calculations. It’s ads free version is currently for $0.99, with the price of a physical device ranging from $15 to $150.
Apalon grew out of a web and mobile development outsourcing company founded in 2007, and they were gradually moving towards creating their own apps, and by 2012 the process of tossing the outsourcing business was complete: they are a successful product company, a developer and publisher of highly popular mobile apps. Here’s a shortened roster of Apalon’s rocking apps: Pimp your screen, Speak&Translate, Weather Live, NOAA Radar PRO, Notepad+, My Alarm Clock.
Apalon mobile apps are in TOP charts in Lifestyle and Weather categories
There are two things to their success: the company strategy is to create universal apps that people would use globally, regardless of where they live, what they do and how old they are. Moreover, if you look at the list above, most of Apalon’s apps have native free analogues pre-installed in your phone. The company’s principle is to build apps that are sleek and easy-to-use, without overloading them with too many features.
Less than a year ago in November 2014 struck an M&A deal with Mindspark Interactive Network, an operating business of NASDAQ-traded IAC. IAC owns more than 150 online brands, including Vimeo, Ask,com, Dictionary.com, okcupid.com, pricerunner.com. The price of the deal is undisclosed.
BRAINLY
Brainly, a gamified social network for students helping each other in homework
Not once GoalEurope wrote about Brainly, a gamified social network for students helping each other with homework questions in a variety of subjects, including math, biology, chemistry, physics, business, history, geography, computers, languages.
It boasts 40 million users worldwide, 5 million registered users, and 70 employees dislocated between the company’s offices in Krakow, Berlin and New-York. The community is also very active: 80% of question get answered within 10 minutes, and more than 8 million answered questions are already in Brainly database.
In June 2015 the company earned Best Education Startup title at The Europas. And almost a year ago Brainly raised $9 million venture funding led by General Catalyst Partners (US), with participation of existing and new investors Point Nine Capital (Berlin), and Runa Capital (Russia and US). Russia and Easter Europe are the companies top-performing markets, and the raised money was intended for increasing the foothold in the US.
Revenue-wise: the monetization thoughts are postponed yet, but one should think along the lines of advertising or a freemium model, as the CEO Michal Borkowski put it, since currently their focus is scaling the business. More on Brainly here.
