Berlin's Knowunity takes €27m Series B from XAnge to push its AI study tutor into the US and Asia

Knowunity, the Berlin learning app built by four school friends, has raised €27m in a Series B round led by Paris-based XAnge. The money takes the company's total funding to €45m and is meant to carry its AI study companion into new markets, with the US and Asia named as priorities.

The round matters because it backs a European consumer edtech business at a time when students everywhere can open a general-purpose chatbot for free. Knowunity is betting that a tutor trained on what pupils themselves write, and matched to each country's school curriculum, will keep them coming back.

Project A, Redalpine, Educapital, Portfolion and Isomer Capital joined XAnge in the round. Several angels also put in money, among them Verena Pausder, who chairs Germany's Startup Association, and Arthur Kosten, a founder of Booking.com.

Four teenagers and a notes app

Benedict Kurz, now chief executive, started the company in 2020 with Gregor Weber, Lucas Hild and Yannik Prigl. All four were 17 and still at school. Weber runs product, Hild is chief technology officer and Prigl works on the backend.

Their starting point was a complaint about school itself. Shopping, fitness and banking had all become personal and app-driven, they argued, while lessons still treated every pupil the same way. The first version of Knowunity was a short-form feed where students posted and browsed each other's revision notes and explainers, styled after the video apps they already used.

That peer content is still the core of the product. The company says more than 380,000 students actively publish material on the platform, and that growth has come mostly through recommendations between friends rather than paid marketing.

From shared notes to a personal tutor

Over time the feed has turned into a full AI study companion. Knowunity says its model draws on more than 3 million pieces of student-made material, adapted to local markets and aligned with national curricula. It suggests what to study next, builds revision plans and produces audio explanations that use everyday examples.

The usage numbers the company gives are high for a learning product. Students open the app more than five times a week on average, and those who use the AI companion return to it more than seven times a week. Younger pupils engage the most, according to the company.

Kurz framed the tutor as a way to give each pupil the kind of attention that private lessons offer.

"With AI, we can finally give students what they actually need: instant feedback, tailored learning plans, and real motivation."

The company describes its long-term aim as replacing costly offline tutoring with help that is available around the clock for much less money. Its stated ambition is to reach a billion students.

Reach today, and how it makes money

Knowunity reports more than 20 million users in 15 countries. In Germany, it says, one in three school students uses the app. After launching in Latin America it reached roughly one in ten students there within a few months, a sign that the peer-content model can travel beyond its home market.

The business runs on freemium. Core features are free, and a paid premium tier is being introduced one country at a time. Subscriptions from students and families now bring in most of the revenue, the company said. A smaller stream comes from employer-branding deals with companies such as Vodafone, Gothaer and Porsche, which use the app to reach young people before they choose a career.

For European investors, the mix is notable. Many edtech startups on the continent sell to schools or governments, where sales cycles are slow and budgets tight. Knowunity sells directly to consumers, which puts it closer to a social app in how it grows and how it charges.

What the €27m pays for

The company said the new money will go into three areas: further work on the AI companion, hiring, and entry into new countries. The US and Asia are the main targets, both large markets with established homework-help and tutoring players.

XAnge partner Valerie Bures said the investor expects the product to give every student a personal AI companion that can explain any subject and prepare them for exams.

The harder test is the one Knowunity sets for itself abroad. Its advantage at home rests on millions of notes written by German pupils for German syllabuses. Repeating that in the US or across Asia means building a fresh base of local student creators in each market, and showing that the paid tier converts as well there as it does in Europe.