London-based edtech startup MyTutor, a one-to-one online tutoring provider, has raised £4 million in a fresh funding round to bring private tutoring to more students amid COVID-19 pandemic.
The round was led by existing investor Mobeus Equity Partners, bringing the startup’s total funding to date to £14 million.
Founded by Bertie Hubbard, James Grant, and Robert Grabiner in 2013, MyTutor offers interactive one-to-one tuition online to secondary school-aged students across the country. It provides lessons in over 30 subjects, offering students to learn fun new topics or revise old ones, with guidance from subject experts handpicked from top universities across the UK. The lessons are tailored to each individual and fit the schedule of any family.
MyTutor believes tuition is out of reach for most families – it is either expensive or availability is low, or it relied on living near a good tutor. Knowing this, the startup established its platform with a mission to bring life-changing tuition to all. And since its inception, MyTutor’s online network of tutors has facilitated over 1 million bookings, with 100,000 families in the UK relying on its platform for one-to-one tuition. The startup claims to currently work with over 500 schools across the country, targeting learning gaps and helping students of all abilities reach their goals.
Speaking on the development, Bertie Hubbard, Co-founder and CEO of MyTutor, said,
“The current pandemic has impacted every single UK family, and there is now an urgent need for academic support to ensure school children get back on track with their education. Through our consumer-facing platform and partnerships such as the EEF’s online tuition pilot, we know that we can make a difference and reduce learning gaps despite these unprecedented circumstances – and we’re delighted by the continued support of our investors. While the pandemic has seen a whole generation of parents experience the benefits of online tuition we believe this is just the start of a more permanent shift.”
The company said the new funding will be used to further develop and increase the availability of its tutoring platform, to meet the growing demand and ensure that children get the most from their education. MyTutor said its platform has seen demand more than double since school closures began.
Matt Mead, Venture Partner at Mobeus Equity Partners, commented on the investment saying,
“Since the early days of MyTutor, it has been clear to us that Bertie and the team have created a service that has a real, positive impact, with great potential to reduce inequality of opportunities for UK school children. With this capital injection, we will ensure that MyTutor can keep up with demand at a time when online one-to-one tuition has become more important than ever to prevent the widening of an already existing learning gap. We know that the company’s potential to have a real impact on our schooling system and wider society reaches far beyond the current pandemic. MyTutor is setting the precedent for a new normal for tuition and we are excited to continue on this journey together.”
Meanwhile, MyTutor has also just been announced as one of the four tutoring companies working with The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) to launch a new online tuition pilot to help disadvantaged students as schools begin to reopen. As part of the initiative, the online tutoring platform will provide support for 1,000 of the 1,600 students in the programme.
