Duolingo has acquired the team behind London-based music gaming startup NextBeat in a move designed to boost the company鈥檚 push into music education.
The world鈥檚 leading mobile learning platform, listed on the Nasdaq exchange, is bringing in a team of mobile gaming veterans to help push its 鈥楳usic鈥� course to compete against others on the market.
鈥淟earning should be just as engaging as playing a great game, whether you鈥檙e practicing a new language or playing a favorite song,鈥� said Bob Meese, chief business officer at Duolingo (pictured, main image).
鈥淭his 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.鈥�
The deal is a 鈥榬everse acqui-hire鈥� – the term used when a big tech firm hires employees from another company without buying the firm itself.
It is not dissimilar to Anthropic鈥檚 recent hiring of key figures from the Humanloop team.
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A total of 23 of NextBeat鈥檚 team will join Duolingo鈥檚 ranks, with skills spanning game design, user retention, monetisation, sound design and music licensing.聽
It also marks the company鈥檚 first official UK presence, tapping into the country鈥檚 talent pool.聽
Founded by Simon Hade, Olly Barnes and Joe Adams, the NextBeat studio is known for hit rhythm games like Beatstar and Country Star 鈥� titles that racked up more than 100m downloads and nearly $200m in revenue.聽
The company originally spun out of Space Ape Games following its acquisition by Supercell.
鈥淔rom 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,鈥� said CEO Hade.
鈥淛oining forces means we can bring our passion for music and play to a platform that is redefining how people learn.鈥�
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