Duolingo rings up $35m

Duolingo, the US-based language learning app spinout of Carnegie Mellon University, has increased its valuation to $2.4bn in a $35m financing round.
Investment manager Durable Capital Partners and growth equity firm General Atlantic provided the capital, which lifted the company’s overall funding to $183m.
Founded in 2009 as a spinout of Carnegie Mellon University, Duolingo has built an online platform that helps users learn some 40 different languages.
The company has 98 courses available and will put the cash into a recruitment drive that has already involved it increasing headcount from 200 at the end of 2019 to 350 today, in addition to research and development.
Duolingo’s co-founder and chief executive, Luis von Ahn, said: “At Duolingo, we are driven by our mission to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available. I am proud of the impact we have achieved while also significantly growing our business.
“In welcoming Durable as our newest investor, and securing General Atlantic’s deepened commitment, we look forward to partnering with them and using this new capital to further scale our business and bring Duolingo to millions more people worldwide.”
The company raised $45m in a 2015 series D round led by technology group Alphabet’s CapitalG unit, and backed by existing investors Union Square Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Ashton Kutcher and Tim Ferris.
Drive Capital led a $25m series E round two years later that valued Duolingo at $700m, before CapitalG supplied $30m in series F funding for the company in December 2019 at a $1.5bn valuation.
General Atlantic invested $10m and picked up additional shares through a secondary transaction in April 2020 but it is unclear how this relates to the latest round.
– Feature image courtesy of Duolingo. A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.