General IPO
June 29, 2021
4 minutes read

Markets: Language Learning App Duolingo Files For IPO

Duolingo, that popular app for learning languages that trails you with ads everywhere you go on YouTube, has filed for…

Duolingo, that popular app for learning languages that trails you with ads everywhere you go on YouTube, has filed for an initial public offering (IPO). The company has unveiled an S-1 filing with the US SEC showing its intent to list on the Nasdaq stock market.

Duolingo filed for an IPO after wrapping up a year that was very favorable to its business. It happens that the pandemic of 2020 drove people more towards mobile apps and Duolingo, a mix of learning and gaming, was a major beneficiary of it.

From its S-1 filing, Duolingo shows that its annual sales rose from $71mn in 2019 to $162mn in 2020. That 129% jump is a testament to the recent year being a very good one for the company.

On a net basis, Duolingo isn’t profitable, though its net losses are usually small relative to its revenue. The company reported a net loss of $15.8mn in 2020, compared to $13.6mn in 2019.

Duolingo reports having 39.9 million monthly active users and 9.5 million daily active users at the end of March 2021. Out of that number, 1.8 million are paid subscribers, a 700k increase from the same time last year.

With a “freemium” business model, Duolingo has built a very successful interactive language learning app for end-users. It’s been able to get a business with very solid annual revenues at that.

Duolingo is one of the few ‘hot’ tech startups based in the city of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. Famous for housing Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Pittsburgh has a very strong talent base for engineers and coders but not many tech ventures accommodating them. Duolingo has been one of the few exceptions born and bred in the city.

Duolingo plans to list on the Nasdaq exchange with the trading symbol “DUOL”. The company was valued at $2.4bn from its most recent financing round and will likely aim higher than that with its IPO.