Extra fuel for Babbel

Babbel announces new investors to fuel the expanding world of language learning.
two years after Babbel 2.0

two years after Babbel 2.0

Read this post in German (Deutsch)
We recentely announced a new round of funding: Reed Elsevier Ventures and Nokia Growth Partners join the company as new investors. The existing Investors IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft and Kizoo Technology Capital also  took part in this Series B. This is of course good news: new liquidity for the company and new opportunities to explore. We will use the new funds to expand internationally and bring easy language learning to as many countries as we can. We will also increase ouravailability on different mobile andonline platforms to make Babbel  accessible wherever you are and on any device that can connect to the internet. And of course the very product itself will improve. We feel that this is only the beginning: Babbel is already a pretty  good learning tool, but there are so many ideas how to make it even more engaging, sticky and fun that we can’t wait to try them all.
Both new investors belong to large corporates that operate in areas adjacent to ours. Does this mean that Babbel is now exclusively tied to Reed Elsevier and Nokia and will not work with other major players like Pearson, McGraw-Hill, Holtzbrinck on the one hand and Samsung, Apple, Sony  on the other hand (to name only a few)?
Such a limitation is not in the interest of Babbel (and as a consequence its investors/stakeholders). Of course, we will make use of the links into Reed Elsevier and into Nokia andcooperated in any area where it makes sense. And there are a number of ways where this can substantially help us. But if Samsung, Sony or HTC want to pre-install Babbel on all of their Android devices or Apple wants to cooperate in some education initiative, we will definitely  be there to talk.
So it seems that we got the best of all worlds and this is both exciting and a little scary. Of course, we have great respect of what lies ahead us, because it won’t be an easy ride. But it is great to work for Babbel and be part of this story. I am personally proud to be a member of this team and together with the others I’m ready for any challenge.

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Babbel

We are a team of more than 750 people from over 50 nations with a shared passion for languages. From our offices in Berlin and New York, we help people discover the joys of self-directed language learning. We currently offer 14 different languages — from Spanish to Indonesian — that millions of active subscribers choose to learn.

We are a team of more than 750 people from over 50 nations with a shared passion for languages. From our offices in Berlin and New York, we help people discover the joys of self-directed language learning. We currently offer 14 different languages — from Spanish to Indonesian — that millions of active subscribers choose to learn.