Due to the crisis, the English language learning service LinguaLeo reduces staff and costs

Received information that the service LinguaLeo plans to reduce staff by 30%. Such a decision is explained by an unfavorable economic situation. The project failed to attract the required amount of investment. The remaining 70% of employees are going to cut wages. Thus, the salary of the head of the company Dmitry Stavisky will be halved. The founder of LinguaLeo, Aynur Abdulnasyrov, refused to pay his salary altogether. He retired from the company and is no longer claiming anything.

Despite the preserved interest of investors, investments are currently suspended. According to some experts, for five years the project failed to achieve self-sufficiency. However, Mr. Abdulnasyrov refutes this statement. He argues that during its existence, the service twice went on self-sufficiency. Just now the company is going to develop with their own money, so you need to save.

The information about the reduction of staff, received by the publication Roem.ru, was confirmed by Dmitry Stavisky, General Director of LinguaLeo:

It is sad to admit, but we really have to go to serious measures. Last year, we hired employees with the expectation of rapidly scaling products, platforms and new countries. Part of the projects we have implemented and are proud of the results. This is a recommendation system, a partnership with TED , Coursera and other major players, launch in Turkey. All this was planned with the expectation that we would get a new round of investments. However, due to the crisis it did not happen.

The plans are to concentrate on the main products of LinguaLeo, which directly relate to the quality of training and user motivation. We take all possible measures to help our employees find a job. Portfolio companies Runa Capital have already contacted us, they will be happy to welcome our specialists to their teams.

LinguaLeo was launched in 2010. The first investors of the project were Yegor Rudi, Igor Ryabenky and Sergey Kuznetsov. They invested $ 200 thousand in the project. In July 2012, Runa Capital invested $ 3 million in LinguaLeo. At the beginning of last year, the project management attempted to bring it to the international market. At that time, the post of general director was held by Abdulnasyrov. In June 2014, he handed over the management of the company to Dmitry Stavisky. Previously, Stavisky was the vice president of international development for Evernote .