10 Years of Mondly | 10 Stories – Story 5: Pixel Perfect

“Sports and school: that’s what our parents insisted on,” explains Mondly Co-Founder, Tudor Iliescu.

Whether it was a physics competition or a tennis game, Tudor and his brother Alex grew up with a desire to excel — and win.

“It’s innate — it’s how they’ve grown up. It’s a clear demonstration of this confidence that we can compete with the best and we can build the best”, shares Ebrahim Matthews, SVP Product at Pearson, thinking back to when he first met the brothers.

That competitive spirit meant benchmarking against global players at every stage of the Mondly journey.

An outward focus

“What’s Apple launching? What’s new this year? What are Oculus doing? These were the companies we looked to as our benchmark,” explains Mondly Co-Founder, Alex Iliescu.

For the Mondly tech loving team, it was about much more than monitoring what competitors were doing; it was about taking inspiration from the most innovative companies in the world.

“Comparing yourself to the best brings the best,” summarizes Adrian Raduca, System Admin Coordinator and the very first Mondly team member.

A collective endorsement

And it really did bring out the best in the Mondly team, driving them to deliver bigger and better.

In just over five years of doing business, Mondly picked up more than 15 different awards and accolades from big name tech giants, like Apple and Google, as well as business experts like Ernst & Young and Deloitte.

“We always wanted to build the best features,” explains Tudor, “like, pixel perfect.

“Everything we put into the app was carefully thought through, and our effort here was crucial to our success”.

“All of them together speak to the quality,” he continues. “If it was only one, that isn’t as significant. But if every major player in this industry says you’ve built something great, then I think we did.”

Obama — you’re invited

There was one award the Mondly team still hadn’t got their hands on.

“We were still not number one,” smiles Alex. “There were these older apps that had accumulated more downloads and were more famous because they’re based in the U.S., they’re on Good Morning America and the late night shows — Obama even went to visit Duolingo.”

“So we would always know we’re number two or number three and always feel like we needed to do more.

“We haven’t really made it in the final sense of being number one, so ten years later, it’s still driving us today”.

That focus on being the best has created an award-winning learning experience that continues to impress users and the industry experts the team turn to for inspiration.

The long list of awards and accolades Mondly’s picked up is a testament to the inspirational power of aiming for the best.

THE MILESTONES 

• Apple award: “Best New App” (Sept 2016) 
• “App of the Year” in EMEA by Facebook (July 2017) 
• Mondly “Editors’ Choice”, Google Play (Oct 2017) 
• Mondly Kids, “Editors’ Choice”, Google Play (Dec 2017)
• Mondly Kids,  “Best of 2017” by Google Play (Dec 2017) 
• Named “Cool Vendor” by Gartner (June 2018) 
• Alex Iliescu, “Entrepreneur of the Year”, Business Excellence Awards (July 2018) 
• Alexandru Iliescu is “Founder of the Year” at Central European Startup Awards (Oct 2018) 
• Mondly is included in Deloitte’s Fast 50 Rising Stars (Oct 2018) 
• Mondly is #15 in top 100 most Loved Brands from Brașov (Dec 2018) 
• Alexandru Iliescu and Tudor Iliescu are awarded the “Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year: Technology & Innovation” prize by Ernst & Young (Feb 2019) 
• Mondly is named „Best Online Language Learning Portal” in Germany (Deutsches Institut für Service-Qualität) (Jul 2019) 
• Mondly is #8 in top 100 ‘Most Loved Brands’ and #9 in Top Employers from Brasov (Jan 2020)
• Mondly Kids is featured in a new story from Apple dedicated to children learning from home (Mar 2020)
• Mondly ranks among the top 10 most downloaded education apps in Europe and #2 most downloaded language learning app (May 2020)
• Mondly is named “App of the Day” by Apple in 157 countries (Nov 2020)
• Mondly is #4 in top 100 most Loved Brands and #2 in top Employers from Brașov (Jan 2021)
• Mondly is named Best of 2020 by Huawei in the “Best for Personal Growth” category (Jan 2021)
• Mondly in top 5 language apps live at FB EMEA Summit (Jun 2021)
• Mondly in top 3 “Become bilingual” apps in the App Store’s “Essential apps for your summer” feature (Jul 2021)
• Mondly is the #1 app in Education in Germany, Austria & Switzerland (Jul 2021)
• Mondly is #3 in Education Apps in Europe, Middle East & Africa (Jul 2021)
• Mondly becomes the #1 Educational app on Oculus VR (Aug 2021)
• Mondly is #17 in the Oculus Top and continues to rise. (Sept 2021)
• Mondly wins the WITSA Chairman’s Award 2021 (Nov 2021)
• “Best of Quest 2021″ top under the Top Productivity Apps section on Meta (Dec 2021)
• Mondly is #3 in top 100 most Loved Brands in Brasov (Jan 2022)
• Mondly is #3 in top 100 iOS free apps on AppMagic and #5 in Education in general (Jan 2022)
• Mondly is #2 in Top Language apps by downloads in Europe (Mar 2022)
• Mondly is recognized by Apple as one of the top 10 education apps worldwide (Apr 2022)
• Mondly is in Apple’s Top 10 education apps (Aug 2022)
• Mondly VR is ranking #5 in Top Selling Apps (Aug 2022)
• Mondly VR is ranking #3 in Top Selling Apps Meta Quest (Nov 2022)
• Mondly VR is ranking #2 in Top Selling Apps Meta Quest (Nov 2022)
• Mondly is #4 by Downloads in 2022 Top Educational Apps in Europe (Nov 2022)
• Mondly is #4 by Gross Revenue in 2022 Top Educational Apps in Europe by SensorTower (Nov 2022)
• Mondly has been ranked #2 in the “Learning Portals & Apps Languages” category at the German Education Awards 2023/2024, presented by the German Institute for Service-Quality (DISQ) (Nov 2023)