Trala is a Chicago online music school that combines technology that listens to users play and provides instant feedback with personalized 1-on-1 lessons from diverse teachers. Its core offering is learning the violin, and the company intends to use new funding to continue expanding that offering while exploring additional instrument options. Trala raised an $8M Series A, bringing its total funding to $15M. The round was led by Seven Seven Six, with participation from Lachy Groom Fund, Altman Capital, Next Play Ventures, and Concrete Rose Ventures. The platform has attracted a diverse group of about 1,000 students, including truck drivers, politicians, firefighters, grandmothers, surgeons, and construction workers. The company anticipates creating up to 300 new jobs for musicians over the next two years to bolster its community of teachers and learners. Trala is a music education app focused on teaching violin to students of any age via matched teachers, a large library of violin videos, and interactive sheet music. The app pairs students with violin teachers tailored to age, skill level, and goals, and provides instant pitch and rhythm feedback through proprietary signal-processing algorithms. Trala reports over 400,000 downloads from users in 193 countries over the past three years. The company recently announced a partnership with violinist Joshua Bell and counts backers including Duolingo CEO Luis von Ahn. Management says the new funding will be used to refine Trala’s curriculum and technology. The stated mission is to make music education accessible to everyone on Earth. Trala provides a violin teaching app that features video tutorials with professional violinists and leverages technology to give feedback on mistakes. Founded in 2017 and led by CEO Sam Walder, the company is based in Chicago and was part of the 2018 Techstars Chicago class. On August 13, 2020, Trala raised $3.5M in a seed round led by Next Play Ventures with participation from Techstars Ventures, Lachy Groom, Hyde Park Angels, Phoenix Rising, Blue Titan Ventures, Webb Investment Network and Concrete Rose Capital. The company has raised just under $5M to date. Trala intends to use the funds to continue to expand operations and broaden its business reach. Trala is a mobile app that teaches users how to play the violin using advanced signal processing and tutorials. The app is Juilliard-approved and teaches absolute beginners how to play songs in 30 days. Trala has over 60,000 downloads and is available on the App Store. It was co-founded by Sam Walder and Vishnu Indukuri and is headquartered in Chicago. The company is part of Techstars Chicago located within 1871 and is supported by violinists such as Rachel Barton Pine and former Juilliard professor Stefan Milenkovich.

Total raised

$20M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Mar 2023