DUOLINGO: $45 million to Pittsburgh, PA-based Duolingo in a round led by Google Capital. Existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, New Enterprise Associates and Union Square Ventures also participated. The round brings Duolingo to around a $470 million valuation.
The free Duolingo app helps students learn languages while translating web content. It currently offers support for 13 languages: Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, French, German, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian.
Founded in 2011, Duolingo has rocketed to popularity, currently the most downloaded app in the Education category on iTunes and the Google Play store. Worldwide, over 100 million people use Duolingo—more than are enrolled in the US public school system, according to a press release. Duolingo for Schools, which educators can use in the classroom, has over 100,000 registered teacher users.
