Perlego, an education technology platform known as ‘Spotify for textbooks’, has secured a $20 million fundraising round led by Sir Terry Leahy, the former CEO of Tesco.
The digital library service, which offers unlimited access to scientific titles via subscription, is expected to announce the capital injection this week.
The new funding round also includes investments from ITHAKA, the organization behind JSTOR, a leading digital library for scientific journals and books. Perlego’s growing list of shareholders already includes notable names such as Mediahuis, the Belgian publisher that recently made a bid for The Daily Telegraph, and KPN Ventures.
Founded in 2017, Perlego works with thousands of international publishers, providing access to academic, professional and non-fiction content from publishers such as Cambridge University Press, Elsevier and Harvard University Press. The platform’s catalog is available in six languages and is used by more than 250 educational institutions worldwide.
Sir Terry Leahy, who has made a number of technology investments since stepping down from Tesco more than a decade ago, expressed his enthusiasm for Perlego’s innovative approach to education. “Perlego addresses one of the most pressing challenges in modern education: access to essential learning materials,” said Leahy. “This investment is a vote of confidence in Perlego’s potential to reshape the education landscape.”
The new funding will be used to expand Perlego’s international footprint and enhance its offering by integrating artificial intelligence. A key development will be Dialogo, an AI-powered research assistant aimed at improving access to academic content.
Commenting on the impact of the investment, Gauthier Van Malderen, Founder and CEO of Perlego, said: “This investment represents a critical opportunity to drive meaningful change in education and AI more broadly. We are passionate about providing accessible and breakthrough solutions for education.”
The platform’s mission to democratize access to academic resources has attracted the attention of major industry players, and the recent funding will further strengthen its efforts to advance education technology on a global scale.