10 Years of Mondly | 10 Stories – Story 10: The Next Wave of Wow

10 years.  

Most startups don’t make it past the five-year mark, but, Mondly by Pearson is celebrating a decade of unlocking language learning for more than 125 million people.  

Mondly beat the odds with a relentless focus on customer experience and exploring new exciting technology. 

And we’re just getting started.  

That personal, in-pocket experience  

The future of Mondly by Pearson is all about bringing language learning to more devices, and more moments, in a more personalized way.  

“Before, to make the most of data like learning style or communications preferences we’d have to hard code, but AI opens up opportunities,” explains Co-Founder Alex Iliescu.  

“Share a picture of your bookshelf, and it could say, ‘hey, I see you have an interest in Sci-Fi, I’m going to create Sci-Fi inspired lessons to teach you the numbers in Hungarian’.  

“And that content would then be completely different for your child or your partner.” he wraps up.  

“There’s a lot of things related to AI and personalization that we can put into the hands of consumers to make the app really stand out,” agrees Gian Paolo Perrucci, Chief Technology Officer, ELL.  

“It’s about creating the next wave of wow for users”.   

More Mondly Moments 

The next decade isn’t just about how people learn, it’s about when.  

“Rather than you going to an app to learn,” explains Alex, “learning will come to you. But it’s not going to feel like learning. It’s going to feel like entertainment. 

“We could look at your calendar, see you’re commuting and say ok, do you want to hear a joke in the language you’re learning? Or a short story that’s relevant to where you’re going today?.”  

“It’s about being there on every device,” agrees Co-Founder Tudor Iliescu.   

The team to make it happen  

Ambitious plans need dedicated, talented people.  

“The Mondly team is a team of champions,” smiles Tudor, thinking back on how the team has grown from two brothers to 75 people across 16 countries.  

And counting.  

“I’m very proud that we’ve attracted significant new talent over the past two years”, says Gio Giovannelli, President of Pearson ELL.  

“The goal,” adds Brenden Mielke, VP Product, English Language Learning at Pearson, “is to have a really tight-knit group of A players.  

“We want to be really intentional, making sure that everybody we add to the team is leveling up the skills and capabilities of everyone else in the team”, he finishes.   

The sky is the limit  

What does the next ten years hold for Mondly by Pearson?  

“Mondly is part of a much broader proposition and vision”, explains Tudor, “that we’re the trusted brand that you can access everywhere in the world.  

“We will help you make progress at different stages in your life, combining and bundling services to create exactly what you need all in one integrated experience”. 

From one small team starting out in Brașov in 2014 to a ten-year-old business that’s part of the world’s leading learning company, what’s certain is that celebrating ten years will be the first of many more milestones to come.  

“The sky is the limit for us as we join forces,” concludes Tudor. 

THE MILESTONES 

• In-app live English lessons launched (Dec 2022)
• Mondly reaches 1.5 M Facebook followers and 1M Instagram followers (Mar 2023)
• Alex & Tudor spotlighted by GooglePlay (June 2023)
• AI conversation partner, LUNA, launched (Oct 2023)
• Mondly takes second place in Android worldwide (Jan 2024)
• Featured in the AppStore (Feb 2024)