Brainly

Initially called Zadane.pl, the company was founded in 2009 in Poland by Michał Borkowski (current chief executive officer),{{Cite web |last=Salvi |first=Christopher |date=2024-11-20 |title=How AI Is Helping the Founder of Brainly Transform Online Education |url=https://www.entrepreneur.com/starting-a-business/how-ai-is-helping-the-founder-of-brainly-transform-online/483083 |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=Entrepreneur |language=en}} Tomasz Kraus, and Łukasz Haluch. The website is a peer-to-peer platform where students can ask questions, and answer them for other students.{{Cite web |last=Noto |first=Anthony |date=15 June 2016 |title=Brainly banks on OpenStudy to improve education tech |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/newyork/news/2016/06/15/brainly-banks-on-openstudy-to-improve-education.html |access-date=2025-05-15 |website=www.bizjournals.com}} Ranks are provided to students who provide high-quality answers.{{Cite web |title=Brainly – Leveraging the wisdom of the crowds to do your homework |url=https://digital.hbs.edu/platform-digit/submission/brainly-leveraging-the-wisdom-of-the-crowds-to-do-your-homework/ |access-date=2021-12-28 |website=Digital Innovation and Transformation |language=en-US}} The platform is moderated by both volunteers, staff, and machine learning algorithms.{{Cite web |last=Sawers |first=Paul |date=2019-07-25 |title=With 150 million users, Brainly raises $30 million to expand its social learning platform in the U.S. |url=https://venturebeat.com/2019/07/25/with-150-million-users-brainly-raises-30-million-to-expand-its-social-learning-platform-in-the-u-s/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190726143940/https://venturebeat.com/2019/07/25/with-150-million-users-brainly-raises-30-million-to-expand-its-social-learning-platform-in-the-u-s/ |archive-date=2019-07-26 |access-date=2020-09-01 |website=VentureBeat}} The first million unique monthly users were achieved within 6 months after the release.{{cite web|last1=Petrovich|first1=Liesha|date=2016-12-22|title=With 80 Million Users, Poland-based Brainly is Changing Education|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/liesha-petrovich/with-80-million-users-pol_b_13790336.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161223152827/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/liesha-petrovich/with-80-million-users-pol_b_13790336.html |archive-date=2016-12-23 |access-date=2019-01-31|website=HuffPost|publisher=BuzzFeed}}

In January 2011, the company founded Znanija.com, a Russian language version of the platform.{{Cite web|last=Degeler|first=Andrii|date=2014-03-17|title=Crowdsourced School Homework: Brainly Plans to Teach the US|url=https://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/03/17/crowdsourced-school-homework-brainly-plans-take-us-market-success-europe/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140321034815/http://thenextweb.com:80/insider/2014/03/17/crowdsourced-school-homework-brainly-plans-take-us-market-success-europe/ |archive-date=2014-03-21 |access-date=2018-06-18|website=TNW}}

In June 2016, Brainly acquired the US-based OpenStudy.{{Cite news |date=2016-06-14 |title=Brainly Acquires US Social Learning Platform, OpenStudy |work=EdSurge |url=https://www.edsurge.com/news/2016-06-14-brainly-acquires-us-social-learning-platform-openstudy |access-date=2017-10-18}}{{Cite news |date=2016-06-14 |title=Social Learning Platform OpenStudy Joins the Brainly Community |work=Yahoo! Finance |url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/social-learning-platform-openstudy-joins-130000652.html |access-date=2016-10-03}}

In January 2018, Brainly announced it had acquired the video education start-up Bask to add video features to its platform.{{cite web |last=O'Hear |first=Steve |date=2018-01-25 |title=Brainly acquires Bask to add video to its peer-to-peer learning platform for students |url=https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/25/brainly-bask/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180125160246/https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/25/brainly-bask/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 25, 2018 |website=TechCrunch}}

In 2020, the company experienced a significant increase in the number of users, caused by the global COVID-19 pandemic, from 150 million in 2019 to around 350 million in 2020.{{cite news |last=Westerby |first=Nick |date=2020-11-26 |title=Education app becomes world's number one after surge in popularity caused by pandemic |url=https://www.thefirstnews.com/article/education-app-becomes-worlds-number-after-surge-in-popularity-caused-by-pandemic-17902 |access-date=2020-11-27}}{{Cite web |title=Brainly raises $80M as its platform for crowdsourced homework help balloons to 350M users |url=https://techcrunch.com/2020/12/17/brainly-raises-80m-as-its-platform-for-crowdsourced-homework-help-balloons-to-350m-users/ |access-date=2022-03-12 |website=TechCrunch |date=17 December 2020 |language=en-US}}

In 2020, numerous users on the Art of Problem Solving website found that Brainly had compromised the integrity of the American Mathematics Competitions after posting the questions on its website with the correct answers. This led to Brainly updating its honor code.{{Cite web |title=Brainy Startups |url=https://brainy.pk/qa/ |access-date=2022-07-17 |website=brainy.pk}}

As of 2020, the company had raised approximately $150 million in funding from investors.

In 2023, Brainly released artificial intelligence features for the platform.{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=eSchool News |date=2023-04-17 |title=Brainly Announces Beta Access to New AI Features, Developed with OpenAI's GPT-4 for Personalized Learning |url=https://www.eschoolnews.com/newsline/2023/04/17/brainly-announces-beta-access-to-new-ai-features-developed-with-openais-gpt-4-for-personalized-learning/ |access-date=2023-10-31 |website=eSchool News |language=en-US}}

In 2024, Brainly released Test Prep, an AI-powered tool to help students improve their test scores.{{Cite web |title=Brainly unveils AI-powered test prep to boost student success |url=https://www.edtechinnovationhub.com/news/brainly-unveils-ai-powered-test-prep |access-date=2025-05-01 |website=EdTech Innovation Hub |language=en-GB}}

In 2025, Brainly transitioned from a community-led platform into a full-scale AI Learning Companion, introducing AI agentic support for homework help, tutoring, test prep and active classroom participation. https://www.forbes.com/sites/rayravaglia/2025/02/24/brainly-ai-learning-companion-is-the-tutor-students-need/

ToS;DR (Terms of Service; Didn't Read), a project which analyzes terms of services (ToS) and privacy policies of websites, ranks Brainly at grade D.{{Cite web|title=Brainly -- Terms of Service; Didn't Read|url=https://tosdr.org/en/service/1007|access-date=2022-04-01|website=ToS;DR}}

• Economy of Poland

• [https://brainly.com/ Official website]
• [https://tulsaworld.com/community/sandsprings/news/oklahoma-watch-students-find-shortcuts-cheats-as-virtual-schooling-drags-on-in-pandemic/article_dbb77f9e-17a4-11eb-89f3-bb62c860baef.html Oklahoma Watch: Students find shortcuts, cheats as virtual schooling drags on in pandemic]
• [https://www.eschoolnews.com/newsline/2024/05/30/brainlys-new-ai-test-prep-helps-students-boost-test-scores/ Brainly’s New AI Test Prep Helps Students Boost Test Scores]
• [https://borderpolar.com/2021/02/05/brainly-tutoring-or-cheating/ Is Brainly a tutoring solution, or the next level of cheating?]
• [https://www.forbes.com/sites/rayravaglia/2024/01/23/brainly-evolving-from-questions-and-answers-to-ai-learning-companion/ Brainly Evolving From Questions And Answers To AI Learning Companion]

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Category:Companies based in New York City

Category:American social networking websites

Category:Internet properties established in 2009

Category:Online companies of Poland

Category:Gamification

Category:Educational technology companies of the United States

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Category:Education companies of Poland

Category:Polish Limited Liability Companies

Category:Question-and-answer websites