The founders of Ukrainian EdTech company Mate academy — Roman Apostol, Anna Apostol, and Max Lysak — have launched a co-founding studio, Rist Labs, which will create AI-powered B2C products. Its first project is the educational platform Kodree.
The founders of Ukrainian EdTech company Mate academy — Roman Apostol, Anna Apostol, and Max Lysak — have launched a co-founding studio, Rist Labs, which will create AI-powered B2C products. Its first project is the educational platform Kodree.
Kodree has already raised $10 million in funding from PvX Partners. The platform is backed by General Catalyst, which previously invested $1 billion in Grammarly using a similar model. The funds will be used to scale marketing and attract users in global markets.
According to Mate academy co-founder Max Lysak, the launch of Rist Labs was a logical continuation of the experiments with new products that the team had been conducting within the company.
«At Mate academy, we were constantly testing new product ideas. Over time, this grew into a separate R&D direction. Rist Labs is an opportunity to systematically build new global products,» said Max Lysak.
The studio’s first product was Kodree, a B2C EdTech product for upskilling skills. Despite the joint founders, it is a separate company with its own P&L.
Oleksandr Bartosyuk, former Head of Product at Mate academy, became the product’s CEO. The product operates on a subscription model and offers users structured learning paths, an AI assistant, and a community for collaborative learning.
«We are making a product in which approximately 80% of learning is the performance of practical tasks. The AI assistant helps users move faster: it prompts, checks solutions, and provides feedback in the process. We do not believe in passive learning through watching videos on YouTube — it creates the illusion of knowledge, but does not form real skills,» said Kodree CEO Oleksandr Bartosyuk.
The platform is available in web version and mobile applications and has users from 185 countries around the world.
Previously, the EdTech company Mate Academy, together with the miltech company Dwarf Engineering, launched the first training module in Ukraine dedicated to recruiting in the defense sector.
