Education Technology · Profile from Education Technology Research Companion
Brainly
A Polish peer-to-peer homework-help network, started in 2009 as the Polish site Zadane.pl, that grew into one of the most-visited education sites in the world on free, community-written answers. It was backed mainly by Naspers/Prosus, monetised through ads and a Brainly Plus subscription, and has spent 2023–26 turning itself into an AI tutor ("AI Learning Companion") after ChatGPT threatened the homework-answer model it was built on.
At a glance
- Founded
- 2009, Poland (as Zadane.pl, "assigned homework")
- Founders
- Michał Borkowski, Tomasz Kraus, Łukasz Haluch
- Headquarters
- Kraków, Poland, with a US office in New York (opened ~2016)
- Ownership / structure
- Private, venture-backed. Main investors: Naspers / Prosus Ventures, Learn Capital, General Catalyst, Runa Capital, Point Nine Capital, MantaRay, Kulczyk Investments
- Leadership (2026)
- Michał Borkowski, co-founder and CEO (still CEO as of September 2025; verify 2026). Rajiv Bhat, Chief Product and Technology Officer (appointed January 2024, reported)
- Segment and buyer
- Consumer homework help for middle-school, high-school and early-college students. Students and parents pay for Brainly Plus/Tutor; advertisers pay for free traffic; small school and partnership channels
- Scale
- ~350m monthly users claimed (2020, company); presence in ~35 countries and ~12 languages (~, company); revenue not disclosed
- Capital raised / valuation
- ~$150m in equity through the December 2020 Series D (company). Valuation not disclosed; third-party estimates are unreliable
- Signature moves
- Peer Q&A with gamified moderation; international rebrand to Brainly; Naspers-led Series B and US entry (2016); OpenStudy acquisition (2016); Brainly Plus subscription; Prosus-led Series C (2019); $80m Series D led by Learn Capital (2020); India paid-plan exit and layoffs (2022); AI Tutor (2023); AI Learning Companion in the US (2025). Misses and controversies: cheating concerns, answer quality, ChatGPT disruption, layoffs
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2009
Founding Zadane pl
Launch (free, ad-supported, community-written Q&A site)
2014
Series A and Global Brand
Funding round plus international rebrand and expansion
2016
Naspers Series B and US Entry
Funding round plus acquisition and market entry
2017
Brainly Plus Subscription
Pricing change (from purely ad-supported to freemium subscription)
2019
Prosus Led Series C
Funding round
2020
Series D Learn Capital
Funding round
2022
India Exit and US Focus
Restructuring (market exit for paid plans; layoffs; refocus on the US)
2023
AI Tutor Launch
AI launch
2025
AI Learning Companion
Pivot / AI launch (US product rebuilt from community Q&A into an agentic AI learning companion)