4. Perlego

Founders: Gauthier van Malderen and Matt Davis
Founded: 2016
Website: www.perlego.com

Do you remember being a student? Or maybe you still are a student. Those academic textbooks sure are pricey aren’t they?

In fact, UK students spend an average £400 per year on textbooks, on top of their already astronomical tuition fees.

Founded by Gauthier van Malderen and Matt Davis in 2016, Perlego is the startup that’s fixing this “broken academic publishing industry” by making educational material accessible for all.

For just £8/month, Perlego users gain access to an entire digital library of academic texts, as well as effective learning tools such as highlighting and annotating. The idea is so novel that Perlego claims to not have any direct competitors.

But what about the publishers? Well, Perlego’s distribution model has been set up to reclaim the revenue lost to piracy and the second-hand market. Everyone’s a winner.

The startup is currently experiencing an astonishing 116% month-on-month increase in new subscribers, and is already targeting key strategic markets in Europe for its next stage of growth.

Now backed by a $9m Series A funding round, Perlego is well placed to democratise access to academic texts the world over. That’s a mission we can get behind.