User:Parrot01/Myngle

Company
Myngle is a pioneer of live online language learning. Based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Myngle removes the physical dimension for language learning, allowing students and teachers to get one-on-one real time online lessons from wherever they are. This has resulted in students and teachers participating from over 150 countries.

Myngle is free for students and teachers to sign up. Myngle does not only provide online live individual and group lessons, but also personalized packages, asynchronous products and free resources for a complete learning experience for Myngle students. In order to guarantee the safety of online money transactions, the students pay directly to Myngle and then the teachers receive their money through Myngle.

In July 2009, Myngle had more than 65.000 students from 166 countries and 256 active teachers. Myngle website content is localized in 6 languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French and Russian.

“Quality”

Quality is very important for Myngle, not only in terms of offline qualification and experience of its teachers, but also of the lessons provided online. Myngle selects and trains the teachers to ensure the quality of online language learning on Myngle. Myngle requires all teacher candidates to send their CVs, from which Myngle will check each teacher’s experience and qualifications. If the teacher meets Myngle’s quality standard, he/she will be invited for a consultation. In the consultation session, the teachers’ teaching skills will be tested and reviewed. Furthermore, the teacher will be given an explanation and information about how to use Myngle’s tools and virtual classroom correctly, i.e: the teacher learns what to do when a student books a class. Students are also able to give feedback about their teachers and the feedback is visible to other students.

History
Myngle was launched in December 2007, based on the experience of Marina Tognetti, the founder of Myngle, when she wanted to study Chinese. She found it hard to study Chinese because of the lack of qualified teachers in her area and a proper learning environment. Having such an experience gave Tognetti the idea to create a company offering live online language lessons. She resigned from her job at eBay, where she worked for 4 years, and together with 3 co-founders- Egbert van Keulen, Danilo da Silva, Valter Stoiani, Tognetti started Myngle.

Applications
Myngle uses a toolkit for synchronous learning, which consists of VoIP in combination with an integrated whiteboard, feedback and a community environment. Teachers also have the possibility to upload podcasts and other support learning material so that the student is able to study before class starts or do homework after the lesson. It is possible for students to pay at Myngle with a credit card(MasterCard, Visa, American Express, bank transfer or PayPal. For students located in Holland there is the additional possibility of paying with Ideal.

Financing
In March 2009, Myngle secured €950,000 ($1.25 million) in the form of a bank loan from Rabobank. The Dutch government, through an innovation program, backed the loan. This was Myngle 2nd round of financing. On the 1st round Myngle was able to secure €800,000 seed investment from the HenQ fund and private individuals.

(http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/04/language-e-learning-startup-myngle-secures-e1-million-euros/)

Awards
-Nominated for Best European Web Application or Service EMEA in Techcrunch The Europa’s Tech Awards in July 2009

-FEM Business Top 5 Start up Media in The Netherlands, in June 2009

-Plugg 2009 People’s choice award, in March 2009

-Best ICT Company at the European Venture Summit, in December 2008

-Accenture Innovation award in October 2008 -One of [33 hot dutch web 2.0 companies], in August 2008

-Most promising ICT Company in Benelux, in March 2008