Duolingo, Inc logo

Duolingo, Inc

duolingo.com

Founders: Luis von Ahn (CEO) and Severin Hacker (CTO) founded Duolingo in 2011. Von Ahn, a Guatemalan-American entrepreneur, previously created reCAPTCHA (sold to Google in 2009) and was a MacArthur Fellow in 2006 for his pioneering work in crowdsourcing and human computation at Carnegie Mellon University.

Company Evolution:

  • 2009-2011: Concept development at Carnegie Mellon University, with von Ahn wanting to create free language education accessible globally
  • 2011: Private beta launch
  • 2012: Public app release
  • 2019: Valued at $1.5 billion after Series F funding
  • 2021: IPO at $102 per share, now valued at approximately $15+ billion
  • 2023: Launched Duolingo Max subscription tier with AI features
  • 2024: Added math, music, and chess courses
  • 2025: Launched 148 new language courses using AI automation

Products by this company

Duolingo logo duolingo.com

Duolingo

Duolingo is a free language-learning platform that uses AI-powered personalized lessons, gamification, and adaptive learning to help users master new languages through bite-sized interactive exercises.