Tuition marketplace startup Tutora have successfully raised £700,000 from over 500 investors via crowdfunding platform Crowdcube, to support their continued growth within the £6bn UK private tuition industry. 

Tutora connects families across the UK with the best private tutors for their children. Tutors are available to teach any subject, including languages and instruments, to any age group. Primarily, tutors are booked by parents to provide after-school, at-home tuition for their children, though the startup has seen volumes of growth in the adult learning sector too. 

Last April Tutora raised £150,000 in just four days via Crowdcube, allowing the business to begin creating new jobs and scaling rapidly. Over the past year the company has achieved 700% monthly revenue growth and are now the third largest tuition company in the UK. 

Commenting on the most recent raise, Woodley said, “We’re incredibly pleased to have raised twice the amount of our initial investment goal. It speaks volumes about Tutora’s continuing explosive growth and the confidence our investors share with us about the company's potential.” 

Hughes added, “The worldwide demand for technology in education is expanding rapidly by 17% year on year. With the number of students globally expected to grow dramatically over the next 5 years, innovative companies like Tutora will be essential to ensure we meet the needs of the future. We’re confident this investment will ensure that we can grow to meet these demands.” 

A report last year by leading educational technology conference EdTechXGlobal, highlighted key trends that will impact on the education sector over the coming decades. Globally, the education market is larger than both the software, and entertainment industries, yet severely lacks digitisation. 

Due to an increased volume of gatekeepers and barriers to entry compared to most other industries, it is predicted that this digitisation of education is occurring five times slower than in other sectors.

The Sheffield-based EdTech company was co-founded by childhood friends Scott Woodley, a former teacher, and Mark Hughes, previously a Technology Analyst. They completed their second crowdfunding round on Sunday, hot on the heels of their first round less than 12 months before. 

Until now, finding a tutor has remained a difficult process, generally due to a widespread reliance on word-of-mouth or out-dated listings sites and a lack of student reviews. To solve this, the business uses technology to bring a new layer of trust and transparency in the tutoring industry. The team personally vet every tutor before they join the site whilst their 'best match' algorithm can find the choicest tutors, pulling them to the top of the search results and removing those who other students, and the data, show not to be offering a truly great service. Currently the platform lists over 7000 tutors, serving thousands of lessons per week to tens of thousands of students. 

The company now aims to become the largest tuition company in the UK within the next twelve months, with an eye to future international expansion.