The founders of Ukrainian EdTech company Mate academy — Roman Apostol, Anna Apostol, and Max Lysak — have launched a new company, Rist Labs, which will operate as a co-founding studio. Its mission is to launch and develop AI-powered B2C technology products aimed at international markets. Alongside the studio’s launch, the team also introduced its first product, the education platform Kodree, which has already raised $10 million in investment.
The investor is financial platform PvX Partners, which specializes in financing fast-growing digital applications. The company helps such projects scale marketing and attract new users. PvX Partners’ financing model is backed by major venture fund General Catalyst, known for its investments in technology companies. Previously, that fund invested around $1 billion in Grammarly, using a similar growth financing approach.
The first project created within Rist Labs is the educational platform Kodree — an EdTech service focused on professional skills development and user upskilling. Although Kodree has the same founders as Mate academy, it is a separate company with its own business model, team, and financial metrics.
Oleksandr Bartosiuk, formerly Head of Product at Mate academy, has become CEO of Kodree. The platform operates on a subscription model: users pay a recurring fee and gain access to structured educational programs. The learning process includes an AI assistant that helps review completed tasks, provides hints, and helps students absorb material faster. In addition, the service includes an educational community where users can interact and exchange experience.
A distinctive feature of the platform is that approximately 80% of the learning process consists of practical tasks, which increases the effectiveness of skills acquisition. Kodree is available both in a web version and in mobile apps. According to the company, users of the platform are already present in 185 countries worldwide.
The idea of creating Rist Labs emerged from the Mate academy team’s experiments in launching new products. According to co-founder Max Lysak, the team initially tested different ideas within the company, but over time these experiments evolved into a full-fledged R&D direction. Ultimately, it was decided to spin this activity out into a separate structure — Rist Labs — which would be able to systematically create new technology products for the global market.
Mate academy, from which the new studio emerged, was founded in 2015 by Anna Apostol. Before launching the startup, she worked in business development at IT company SoftBistro. In 2018, her husband Roman Apostol, who had previously worked at Google, joined the project. The third co-founder was Max Lysak, who is also known as a co-founder of the Lviv-based business incubator Startup Depot.
Mate academy specializes in training professionals for the IT sector, including web development, software testing, design, and recruiting. The company uses the Income Share Agreement (ISA) model, under which students pay for tuition only after they find a job and begin earning. The idea of such a model was described by economist Milton Friedman as early as 1955, but it gained widespread adoption only over the last decade.
Mate academy has offices inUkraine and Poland. As of 2023, around 3,000 graduates of the company from different countries around the world — including the United Kingdom, South Africa, and countries across Asia and Europe — had successfully found jobs after completing their studies.
