Duolingo IPO: Language-learning app Duolingo gears up for U.S. IPO, reveals surge in revenue

Language-learning app Duolingo filed an initial public offering in the United States on Monday and revealed that its revenue had more than doubled in the first quarter of this year.

The company was last valued at $2.4 billion after $35 million in funding from Durable Capital Partners and General Atlantic in November.

Duolingo posted revenue of $55.4 million for the three months ended March 31. Net losses over the same period widened to $13.5 million from $2.2 million a year ago.

The Pittsburgh-based company, which is expected to be listed on the Nasdaq, was founded in 2011 by two engineers, Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker. The co-founders met at Carnegie Mellon University, where Luis was a professor in the computer science department and Severin was his Ph.D. student.

Duolingo’s flagship app has over 500 million downloads and is the top-grossing app in the education category on both Google Play and Apple’s App Store, the company said in its prospectus.

The company offers courses in 40 languages ​​to around 40 million monthly active users. There are more people learning certain languages, such as Irish and Hawaiian, on the company’s platform than there are native speakers of those languages ​​globally, it said. he stated in the record.

Goldman Sachs & Co and Allen & Company are the lead underwriters for the IPO. The company plans to start trading under the symbol “DUOL”.

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