Duolingo Acquires NextBeat

Photo Credit: Duolingo

Duolingo acquires the team behind music gaming startup NextBeat with big plans for gamification of music instruction.

The world’s leading mobile learning platform Duolingto has announced the acquisition of the team behind NextBeat, a London-based music gaming startup known for blending music licensing with engaging mobile gameplay. The acquisition positions Duolingo to make its Music course as fun for its users as a leading mobile game.

“Learning should be just as engaging as playing a great game, whether you’re practicing a new language or playing a favorite song,” said Bob Meese, Chief Business Officer at Duolingo. “This is a strategic bet on talent. The NextBeat team brings deep mobile gaming and music industry expertise, which will make our Music course and the entire Duolingo platform more delightful, immersive, and effective.”

The acquisition of NextBeat’s team brings 23 experts in areas such as game design, user retention and monetization, sound design, and music licensing. Their expertise will power the next chapter of Duolingto’s gamified learning experiences, with a focus on building upon Duolingo’s Music course. The move also establishes Duolingo’s first official presence in the UK.

“From day one, it was clear that Duolingo and NextBeat share the same values: putting learners first, obsessing over great design, and never taking ourselves too seriously,” said Simon Hade, CEO of NextBeat. “Joining forces means we can bring our passion for music and play to a platform that is redefining how people learn.”

With millions of learners already using Duolingo Music since its beta launch, this acquisition signals Duolingo’s ambition to make music education more engaging and accessible with a product both playful and effective.

Duolingo’s flagship app has organically become the world’s most popular way to learn languages and the top-grossing app in the Education category on both Google Play and the Apple App Store. Duolingo has consistently invested to provide its learners with a fun, engaging, and effective learning experience while remaining committed to its mission to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available.

NextBeat is a London-based music-first gaming studio founded by entrepreneurs Simon Hade, Olly Barnes, and Joe Adams. The company is best known for the games Beatstar and Country Star, which were spun out of Space Ape Games upon its acquisition by mobile gaming giant Supercell. The mobile rhythm games reached over 100 million downloads and generated nearly $200 million in revenue.