- Language learning app Duolingo has hired bankers to be in public as soon as summer, sources told Insider.
- According to the sources, according to Goldman Sachs and Allen & Co. the leader of the offer.
- The Pittsburgh company was last valued at $ 2.4 billion after completing a fundraising round in November.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
The language app Duolingo has hired bankers for an initial public offering that may come this summer, sources told Insider.
According to two sources close to the company, Goldman Sachs and Allen & Co. are leading. the offer, which asked not to be identified because the information is private. The sources said that the plans of the company, including the timing of the IPO, may still change.
Duolingo was last valued at $ 2.4 billion after a fundraising round was completed in November.
Founded in 2011, the Pittsburgh-based business aims to make education accessible to all by helping people learn new languages. Duolingo currently offers 100 courses in 39 languages for free and counts approximately 40 million monthly active users. The company has a freemium business model, with 96% of learners using a free version.
Representatives of Duolingo, Goldman Sachs and Allen & Co. did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.
Luis von Ahn, Duolingo’s CEO, grew up in Guatemala and trained in the USA. He founded Duolingo after selling two companies to Google earlier in his career. He is also known for inventing the CAPTCHA, or the series of letters that people have to enter to verify that they are human instead of a computer when logging on to a website.
Duolingo raised a total of $ 183 million to fund its growth, most recently $ 35 million in 2020 from Durable Capital Partners and General Atlantic.