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Perlego

Online library of 1,000,000 academic resources

Perlego logo
101-200 employees
  • B2C
  • Education
  • Learning
  • Digital Media
Holborn, London, UK
Two colleagues collaborate at a computer in a well-lit office.A Black man and a white man talk with a South Asian woman, smiling, near a table in a spacious workspace.Group of diverse employees in discussion near a large, open hallway with arched ceilings.

Company mission

Perlego's ambition is to become the world’s online learning library, a single place where learners can instantly access all of the world’s academic content for less than the price of a single book. Perlego are on a mission to make learning accessible to all.

Meet the team

30 people

Camille, Engineering Manager

Our mission

Build and maintain our platform, deliver the best learning experience, and support business growth through technical integrations and wizardry.

Many candidates hear
back within 2 weeks

40% female employees

23% employee growth in 12 months

Our take

Perlego is pitched as a “Spotify for textbooks,” enabling students, and also professionals, who make up 30% of users, to access textbooks on a subscription basis.

They have over 1 million books from 2,300+ publishers across multiple languages. For the students, the benefit is obvious: text books are increasingly expensive to purchase, and public libraries are under resourced.

In the U.K., Perlego gives readers access to its entire digital library for £12 per month. For publishers, Perlego claims to offer a distribution method that stems revenue losses caused by piracy and the buoyant used text book market.

Perlego say they're getting a 100% increase in new subscribers month-on-month, which is very strong traction to build on. With over 15 million users on the Perlego database, growth should continue smoothly.

Kirsty headshot

Kirsty

Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle

Benefits

  • 🏠 Flexible: We operate a flexible hybrid working environment. If you’re based in London, we’d expect to see you in the office twice a week, if you’re outside of London we’d expect to see you at least 6 times a quarter (hopefully at our quarterly socials 💃). If you’re looking for a 100% remote role, this one is not for you. At Perlego, we empower you to work in a way that supports your needs and your life. We trust people to know what works best for them. We are flexible if you wish to work remotely overseas for short-periods of time, as long as you remain a UK tax resident 🗺
  • 🧠 L&D Budget: We value continuous learning and you will have a personal L&D budget for online courses, subscriptions or books not on Perlego.
  • 🌱 Unlimited Coaching Opportunities: Unlimited access to MoreHappi, an on-demand professional coaching platform to offer all employees access to unbiased and professional coaching opportunities
  • 🤓 Learning Time: All employees have dedicated Learning Time
  • 🌴 Work-Life Balance: Everyone needs a break, so enjoy 30 days off (incl. bank holidays) + 1 additional day annual leave for every year of service (up to 35 days)
  • 🛐 Flexi Bank Holidays: We understand that not everyone aligns to the same calendar; we offer the flexibility to take your local countries bank holiday allowance for other religious or cultural days E.g. switch UK Easter Bank Holidays Days for Eid celebrations
  • ❄️ Office Reset: All employees an also enjoy the days between Boxing Day and New Year off, to reset and refresh for the New Year - this is additional to your annual leave 🙂
  • 🏖 Sabbatical: After three years there is an opportunity to take a 1-month unpaid sabbatical, and after five years there is an opportunity to take a 1-month paid sabbatical
  • 💛 Personal Days: Life happens and we want you to be able to use your annual leave for resting, relaxing or taking time out to do something you love! We offer 1 additional day a year for life events (your wedding, relocation, moving house, or a child starting school)
  • 🍏 Health & Wellbeing: We want everyone to feel healthy and happy, so we offer private medical insurance via Vitality.
  • 💭 Mental Health: All employees get access to therapy and counselling through Vitality
  • 🚲 Cycle to Work Scheme: We're committed to building a sustainable business, so we encourage cycling to work. Perlego will buy your bike of choice, which you'll pay back over 12 months
  • 🎉 Social: We're a tight-knit bunch who enjoy our time to play. We have regular social events and activities for everyone - everything from white water rafting to board game nights
  • 🍼 Family time: We believe family is really important; we offer new parents a competitive matched parental leave as well as phased return to work after 6 months leave.
  • 👼 Workplace Nursery Benefit: We want to support working parents and carers, so we offer a workplace nursery benefit scheme, helping our employees potentially save thousands of £££ against the cost of nurseries each year

Company values

  • We are leaders - We empower our users and each other to grow. We are passionate and proactive, taking ownership of the work we do, always striving to be better and embracing challenges, together, without fear of failure
  • We learn - We know the power of knowledge. We are curious, brave and never stop trying new things - always striving to continue learning and to share knowledge with each other and our users
  • We are open - We’re open & inclusive in how we build our product & the people we choose to build our product & business. We’re transparent in our communication: with users & each other, always willing to listen, learn and take on feedback
  • We care - We care about our users/publishers/partners & about creating a more fair and sustainable solution for learners globally. We care about our impact on the world and each other. We think before we act and act with kindness, always
  • What you’ll get - At Perlego we believe in the key role you will play to achieve our shared mission. You'll belong to a culture of dreamers, team players and avid learners with a flexible, value-based approach. Here, you can become your best self, and through your talent, make a real impact in the world of education

Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)

Oct 2024

$20m

LATE VC

Mar 2022

$50m

SERIES B

Total funding: $85m

Leadership

Serial founder, having previously started Iconic Matter, a youth oriented marketing company

Started Perlego straight after his degree in Computer Science at Warwick

People progressing

Joined as a Graphic Design Intern, promoted to Junior Designer 8 months later

Joined as a UX/UI Designer, promoted to Head of Design after 7 months, then again to VP of Product after 9 months

People breakdown

40%

60%

  • Female

  • Male

Last updated on 04 November 2024

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Perlego

Ashleigh Otter headshot

Ashleigh Otter (COO)

  • Perlego's mission is to make education accessible to all. Beyond our product, we believe we have a responsibility to support diverse communities to have equal opportunity within our industry.
  • We have partnered with LMF, a global not for profit focused on empowering, enabling & educating women and minority groups into tech, entrepreneurship & digital. Our VP of People, VP of Product, Design Director, Partner Success Director & Partner Success Manager have all signed up to be mentors to women who are breaking into the tech/digital industry
  • We have also invested in a Perlego Scholarship & Bursary program to support people from diverse backgrounds in the US & the UK to receive education in computer science and/or engineering
  • We try and foster an environment and culture of openness, to encourage and allow everyone to bring their authentic selves to work *(this well never be 'done' and is constantly evolving as we learn how to improve)*
  • When recruiting, we are proactive in our hiring process to ensure all pipelines are balanced, and we use assessment methods to remove bias from the interview process. We also offer a flexible interview process, which can be tailored to each candidates needs/availability, and make sure we are using a broad range of hiring platforms, making sure to actively include platforms that are accessed by a broad spectrum of candidates
  • This is by no means an exhaustive list of activities. As an ed-tech company we value learning, and we're committed to continuing to learn and better ourselves

Endorsements

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Opportunities to learn (7)

Nice people (4)

Team energy (3)

Challenging work (2)

Autonomy (2)

Hard working team (2)

Open and honest communication (2)

Great work is recognised (2)

Inspiring mission (2)

Career progression (1)

Jobs (3)

All locations

Software Engineering