Duolingo Implements First Acquisition Of Startup Studio Animasi Gunner

Duolingo acquires Gunners, creating art in learning (photo: Duolingo)

JAKARTA - Duolingo, a foreign language learning platform announced its acquisition of Gunner, a Detroit-based animated studio startup that has created art for language learning applications and for Amazon, Dropbox, Spotify, and Google.

However, according to TechCrunch, Duolingo refused to disclose the terms of the agreement including the purchase price.

Duolingo also said 15 people from the Gunners team would join Duolingo staff as part of the acquisition. It also confirmed that the edtech company opened offices in Detroit, joining other offices in Pittsburgh, New York, Seattle, Detroit, Beijing, and Berlin.

"Before 2022, we only took a more reactive 'long-awaited and see' approach. And then this year we were a little more proactive in determining what was most suitable for the company in terms of categories and targets." said Duolingo Chief Business Officer Bob Meese.

Meese explained that Gunner's acquisition is in line with the fact that Duolingo is a company that focuses heavily on metrics.

"There are several ways we use animation so we can take a very clear value," he explained.

The executive explained about Duolingo's subscription products, which are labeled as Super Duolingo. He said that subscriptions increased when the company included animated promotions within the app.

"That's something you can provide a very clear economic value for." According to Duolingo's last earnings report, paid subscribers amounted to 3.3 million by the end of the quarter, up 71% from the previous year's quarter.

Last August, Duolingo announced that he would introduce an application containing mathematics lessons for grade 3 students. However, the launch of Duolingo Math is still uncertain.