Language learning company Duolingo filed to go public at the end of June, according to documents submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Founded in 2011, Duolingo currently offers courses in 40 languages, including endangered languages such as Navajo and fictional languages from TV shows like Star Trek and Game of Thrones.
Its language report last year revealed that 30 million new users started learning a language on Duolingo in the weeks following the outbreak of the pandemic.
English remained the top pick for language learners in 121 countries, and was second place in a further eight. However, the fastest growing languages are now all Asian: Hindi, Korean, Japanese, Turkish and Chinese.
Duolingo said in its prospectus that it now has approximately 40 million monthly active users, and, as of the end of March this year, 1.8 million subscribers were using the ad-free, paid version of the platform.
“Our revenue was $70.8 million in 2019 and $161.7 million in 2020, representing 129% year-over-year growth. Our revenue was $28.1 million in the three months ended March 31, 2020 and $55.4 million in the three months ended March 31, 2021, representing 97% period-over-period growth,” said the company.
“In 2020 and the three months ended March 31, 2021, approximately 73% and 72%, respectively, of our revenue came from subscriptions to Duolingo Plus”
“In 2020 and the three months ended March 31, 2021, approximately 73% and 72%, respectively, of our revenue came from subscriptions to Duolingo Plus, approximately 17% came from advertising in both periods, and approximately 10% and 11%, respectively, came from the Duolingo English Test and other revenue.”
In a statement, Duolingo added that it had applied to be listed under the ticker symbol “DUOL”.
Following a valuation after its latest funding round last November, the company was said to be worth $2.4 billion.
