Tutora, an online platform that aims to connect pupils and tutors, has raised 54 percent of its £350,000 target with just over a month left of their CrowdCube campaign.
The website has thus far raised a total of £189,260 across 150 investors, marking a positive start to their crowdfunding exercise. The company had a previous initial round of CrowdCube funding in April 2016, raising £150,000 and growing by 700 percent since.
Tutora was founded by a Private Tutor and a Technology Investor, and aims to match students to tutors according to its “best match algorithm”. The company currently hosts a total of over 6,000 tutor profiles, and has started the secondary funding campaign in order to fufill its ambition to become the largest tuition company in the UK.
In addition, the company notes that it has seen a turnover totalling almost £1 million (across over 37,000 lessons) for 2016. The website anticipates to produce around £1.3 million of revenue in the new year, bolstered by additional funding and expansion efforts.
The platform was founded in order to simplify the tutor finding process, which has become a £6 billion industry across England, Scotland and Wales. As a result of the vastness of the tutoring industry, the company has estimated a pre-money valuation of around £4.2 million. However, it envisaged the website as a way to ultimately help to “bring trust and transparency to the industry”. This is ensured through their vetting processes and the implementation of their “best match algorithm”, to ensure that all pupils and tutors find the best solution.
Co-founder Scott Woodley is a qualified teacher and his partner, co-founder Mark Hughes is a technology analyst specialist who helped create the online concept. Tutora still has 34 days remaining on their CrowdCube campaign, and hopes to raise a total of £350,000 from investors with an equity of 7.69 percent.
Watch Tutora’s promotional video here.