Duolingo Valuation to Rise to Over $3 Billion after US IPO
Coinspeaker
Duolingo Valuation to Rise to Over $3 Billion after US IPO
According to a Reuters report, Duolingo, a leading language-learning app, has revealed that its aim is to have its value rise above $3 billion after its initial public offering (IPO) in the United States which would see it listed on NASDAQ as DUOL.
According to the report, “about 5.1 million shares will be offered in the IPO, priced between $85 and $95 each, which would rake in more than $485 million at the top end of that range.” It was revealed that proceeds of 1.4 million shares that would be sold by “selling stockholders” wouldn’t be going to the language app company. However, proceeds from other shares would be “used for general corporate purposes, including investments in businesses, products and technologies.”
The firm’s last valuation stood at $2.4 billion after Durable Capital Partners and General Atlantic invested around $35 million in November last year. Its IPO listing would be led by Goldman Sachs and Allen & Company who will both be acting as lead underwriters.
Duolingo is an initiative of two engineers, Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker, who met at Carnegie Mellon University. Since then, the language-learning firm has been able to cement itself as a top resource for people looking to learn a new language.
Available data from Google Play and Apple‘s App Store shows that its application has over 500 million downloads and it is also the top-grossing app under education on both platforms.
Duolingo Records Impressive First Quarter before US IPO
A report also shows that the firm had recorded a substantial level of success in its first quarter. According to the data, the firm had recorded a “revenue of $55 million, up 97% year over year. There are about 1.8 billion people in the pool of potential language learners. About 40 million monthly active users (MAU) use the app, and 1.8 million subscribe to Duolingo Plus, which accounts for 72% of its revenue. Another 17% comes from advertising, and the remaining is from the English language test.”
Not only that, but the firm has also been able to actively cash in on the coronavirus pandemic. Its first-quarter review revealed that the “daily active user (DAU) count has gone up a lot in 2020 due to people staying at home, which has had a positive impact on Duolingo’s business. Interestingly, as MAUs grew, so did the percentage of paid subscribers. So growth in free users resulted in even more paid users. More people are also choosing to subscribe for the year instead of one or six months.”