Preply, a language learning platform connecting people with tutors, raised $70 million of fresh capital to ramp up its use of artificial intelligence, the company told CNBC exclusively. The equity portion was led by Horizon Capital, a venture capital firm focused on investing in emerging entrepreneurs, particularly Ukrainians. The funding adds to a $50 million Series C funding round Preply raised last year, and takes its total funding raised to over $170 million. It comes as Duolingo, a competitor to Preply, has been incorporating OpenAI's GPT language processing software to enhance its app's personalization to users. Horizon Capital raised $125 million for a startup fund aimed at backing Ukrainian founders.

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Persons: Kirill Bigai, Dmytro Voloshyn, Serge Lukianov, Preply, Preply's, Max Lytvyn, Alex Shevchenko, Dmitriy Zaporozhets Organizations: CNBC, Horizon Capital, Reach Capital, Hoxton Ventures, Bain, Horizon, Google, Samsung, Amazon Locations: Ukraine, U.S, GroupM, Ukrainian, Preply, Russia, Moscow