Berlin's Knowunity Raises €27M to Scale AI Learning App

According to a story in Handelsblatt, Berlin-based learning platform Knowunity has secured €27 million in fresh funding to accelerate its international expansion.

CEO Benedict Kurz, 23, credits ChatGPT's launch in November 2022 as "the biggest opportunity" for Knowunity. The OpenAI breakthrough enabled the company to leverage its existing data to create personalized learning content for students—something that was technically much more challenging before, Kurz explained.

The platform operates on a freemium model, offering both free and premium features including offline learning capabilities. Students engage with the app five to seven times weekly on average, accessing over three million pieces of content largely uploaded by users themselves and verified by AI models and human moderators.

Knowunity has attracted notable investors from the start, including football star Mario Götze and startup association chief Verena Pausder. Berlin-based Project A has been backing the company since 2021, with partner Anton Waitz describing it as "a Gen Z company for Gen Z." The latest funding round was led by Paris-based Xange, with participation from Portfolion, Project A, and Redalpine.

The fresh capital brings Knowunity's total funding to over €45 million since inception. Kurz plans to use the money for expansion into the US and Asian markets while adding a maximum of 20 new positions to the current 50-person team. The company aims to introduce an AI tutor capable of conducting video conversations and is targeting partnerships with corporations like Porsche and Vodafone to connect students with future employers.

With ambitious plans to serve one billion students globally, Knowunity positions itself as Berlin's answer to language-learning success story Duolingo in the broader education technology space.