Duolingo has acquired the team behind London-based music gaming startup NextBeat in a move designed to boost the company’s push into music education.
The world’s leading mobile learning platform, listed on the Nasdaq exchange, is bringing in a team of mobile gaming veterans to help push its ‘Music’ course to compete against others on the market.
“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 (pictured, main image).
“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 deal is a ‘reverse acqui-hire’ – the term used when a big tech firm hires employees from another company without buying the firm itself.
It is not dissimilar to Anthropic’s recent hiring of key figures from the Humanloop team.
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A total of 23 of NextBeat’s team will join Duolingo’s ranks, with skills spanning game design, user retention, monetisation, sound design and music licensing.
It also marks the company’s first official UK presence, tapping into the country’s talent pool.
Founded by Simon Hade, Olly Barnes and Joe Adams, the NextBeat studio is known for hit rhythm games like Beatstar and Country Star – titles that racked up more than 100m downloads and nearly $200m in revenue.
The company originally spun out of Space Ape Games following its acquisition by Supercell.
“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 CEO Hade.
“Joining forces means we can bring our passion for music and play to a platform that is redefining how people learn.”
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