The global language learning market value is projected to surpass USD 300 billion by 2032, up from USD 61.5 billion in 2023. Globalization, immigration, and the rise of the “work from anywhere” model are some of the factors behind the growing demand for learning languages.
While apps that gamified the learning experience, such as Duolingo, made a huge impact in this market, more learners are now seeking the connection, tailored guidance, and accountability that only a tutor can provide. This shift is reflected in the rapid growth of Preply, a platform and marketplace that now connects 100,000 tutors with learners in over 180 countries.
Besides the human element of live tutoring, part of Preply’s appeal lies in the convenience of its platform, which streamlines all aspects from payments to class scheduling and rescheduling. Importantly, by removing geographical barriers, Preply also makes high-quality learning more accessible. For example, consider someone who has just moved to Zurich, Switzerland — one of the most expensive cities in the world — and needs to learn the local language. In-person German lessons with a local might be prohibitively costly. However, with a global marketplace like Preply, this person can connect online with a native German speaker located in a country with a lower cost of living, and benefit from a more affordable price per hour. This removes a significant block in the path to language proficiency.
To learn more about how the company is navigating expansion, we spoke with Anusha Mahalingam, Vice President of People Strategy. She leads organizational planning, talent strategy, and culture development across a globally distributed team — Preply has established offices in Ukraine, Barcelona, London, and New York. Drawing on her consulting background and international experience, Mahalingam has been shaping an inclusive, high-performance workplace where individual growth meets business impact.
Mahalingam also tackles a vital challenge at Preply: the company’s future growth depends on attracting exceptional AI talent to enhance and personalize the learning experience. As she puts it, “At Preply, we’re competing for top-tier AI talent against some of the biggest names in tech. What sets us apart, and what we emphasize when speaking to candidates, is a combination of purpose, opportunity, and exceptional people.”
In this interview, she discusses the company’s strategy for securing top AI talent while ensuring they’re a cultural fit — which, at Preply, means adherence to its “ABC” principles: being ambitious, bold, and collaborative.
Mahalingam is also the co-founder of LessonLeap, an online platform focused on helping children worldwide achieve English fluency — a venture acquired by Preply. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Cambridge. Read on for our full interview with her.
TechTalents Insights: Preply was founded in 2012 and has expanded rapidly. How is the company balancing the pace of growth with building and maintaining a strong culture? And what does ‘cultural fit’ mean at Preply today?
Anusha Mahalingam: Apart from looking for super-talented individuals, we want to work with people who are motivated by our mission and our principles. Thus, living our Preply Principles, or “Preply ABC’s” — being ambitious, bold, and collaborative — is key to being successful at Preply and building products that support our vision of powering people’s progress.
Here’s what that looks like. Being a culture fit at Preply means setting ambitious goals: we show up every day at work deeply passionate about bringing our best selves, so that we can deliver the most exceptional experience to help our learners and tutors progress. We are bold in our outlook, acting with a strong sense of purpose and urgency; blending instincts with data to make the right decisions. And most of all, we are collaborative, working well together, elevating our teams and the company over our individual ambitions. We challenge each other respectfully, but dive forward with purpose once decisions are made. We are constantly looking for ways to learn.
While we are growing rapidly and have hubs spread across the world, we take the time to ensure that every single hire we bring on fits these principles. We’re proud to have leaders who consistently model these values in their day-to-day work, whether they’re tying our principles back to key decisions or using them as a barometer when we evaluate performance. These behaviors aren’t just symbolic, but are all ways in which we maintain our amazing culture even as we scale.
Finally, we include a dedicated “Culture Champion” interview as part of every hiring process. This conversation takes place before we make an offer and is focused entirely on alignment with our Preply Principles. While technical skills and experience matter, we’ve seen time and again that someone can be exceptional at their craft, but if they’re not a culture fit, it impacts the individual, the team, and our long-term success. This step helps us ensure we’re not just building a high-performing team, but one that lives our values every day.
So, while we rigorously evaluate technical skills and role-specific expertise, we also make sure we’re spending time evaluating how candidates like to work, what makes them tick, and how they would react in specific situations. This helps us to ensure every hire has the ability to thrive in our culture, and more importantly, to add to it!
Despite the fact that we’re growing and always expanding, we set the bar very high on the type of talent we bring on board, making sure they add unique skills and experience to help the company progress.
TechTalents Insights: Are there particular working styles or backgrounds that you’ve found to be especially suitable?
Anusha Mahalingam: We find that people who really align with our mission, who are eager to learn, and who are unafraid to make mistakes — but are very quick to learn from them — are a strong fit for Preply. We seek out candidates who thrive on teamwork and are committed to fostering outcomes for our learners and tutors.
Our team is incredibly diverse — spanning many countries, different life experiences, and career backgrounds. What unites us is a hunger to grow, a desire to surround ourselves with people we can learn from, and a commitment to deliver an outsized impact that creates meaningful change in people’s lives.
TechTalents Insights: While Preply’s core value proposition is learning through human connection, many aspects of the experience — such as tutor-learner matching or the participation stats shown at the end of a class — are made possible by AI. What has Preply’s strategy been for building the AI team so far?
Anusha Mahalingam: We’ve invested heavily in hiring AI scientists, product managers, and engineers in recent years. Initially, our focus centered on core areas such as tutor-learner matching, supply-demand optimization, and customer modeling, all critical to ensuring every learner finds the right tutor. We continue to double down on our efforts and commitment in those areas while expanding our AI efforts across the broader marketplace to drive even more intelligent, personalized, and efficient learning experiences at scale.
As our platform has grown and evolved, we’ve also expanded our investment in hiring AI profiles to accelerate innovation in our self-learning experiences. This growing area focuses on empowering students to practice effectively between lessons, helping them stay motivated and engaged throughout their learning journey. These AI roles are instrumental in designing human-centric features that support active learning, from adaptive practice tools tailored to each learner’s goals to intelligent systems that enable tutors to deliver more personalized, impactful lessons.
All of this means we’re continuing to hire strong AI talent that will enable us to better personalize and improve the experiences of our learners and tutors.
“There are a lot of interesting challenges to solve at Preply, and we have a huge amount of data at our fingertips. It’s a great place to be for those interested in creating impact and shaping the progress and success of our product.”
TechTalents Insights: With AI becoming a more visible part of Preply’s strategy, how are you positioning the company to stand out in an increasingly competitive market? What messages or values do you emphasize when targeting candidates who could easily go to a tech giant?
Anusha Mahalingam: At Preply, we’re competing for top-tier AI talent against some of the biggest names in tech. What sets us apart, and what we emphasize when speaking to candidates, is a combination of purpose, opportunity, and exceptional people.
Working at Preply means candidates will have inspiring leadership. AI talent will work alongside leaders, including our new Vice President of Data and Applied AI, Ana Peleteiro Ramallo, and others who have deep technical expertise, strong product instincts, and a proven ability to build with impact. Our team combines ambition with humility, and that creates a unique environment of mutual respect and high standards.
Working at Preply also means high ownership and visibility. Unlike larger tech companies where work can get buried, Preply gives employees the opportunity to directly shape product direction and see their work in the hands of users quickly.
“We’re rapidly scaling, and that means employee contributions don’t just support a product; they shape it. There’s a real opportunity here to help define how AI can impact the future of education.”
We also offer a mission that matters. Preply’s vision to power people’s progress resonates with candidates who want their work to have real-world impact. We’re helping people change their lives through language, and an emotional connection to the mission is something that many candidates don’t find at larger companies.
Finally, we offer a culture of collaboration. While we are driven by our mission and work hard every day to bring it to life, one of the most rewarding parts of being at Preply is the incredible people that we work with and all of the fun we have together. From welcoming office spaces in our hubs that encourage collaboration to various events organized by our fabulous Workplace Experience team — think pub quizzes, offsites, parties — we make the most of every moment as a team.
Note: For more information, visit Preply’s Careers page.
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