Duolingo announces $15 million funding round led by Union Square Ventures and NEA
Skift Take
Investors say that they love Duolingo because of its business model, but the dependency upon crowdsourcing atop an otherwise innovative system still puts a large chunk of the product in the hands of a participating audience.
The startup Duolingo has found a way to make free foreign language learning profitable.
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The company, which counts Ashton Kutcher and four-hour obsessive Tim Ferriss among its backers, is doing it, in part, by enlisting new language learners to translate the web.
It’s an approach that investors clearly like: The Pittsburgh-based startup today announced a new $15 million funding round led by NEA and Union Square Ventures. Duolingo launched in June with $3.3 million in backing from actor Kutcher’s A-Grade Investments, Union Square Ventures, and Ferriss.
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