Datum Invest has led a $15.3m round for educational game platform Kahoot, which is the result of research at Norwegian University of Technology and Science.
Kahoot, a Norway-based educational game developer based on research at Norwegian University of Technology and Science (NTNU), has tripled its valuation to $300m in seven months with a Nkr127m ($15.3m) funding round, TechCrunch has reported.
The round was led by investment vehicle Datum Invest and included undisclosed additional investors based in the Nordics region, co-founder and chief executive Åsmund Furuseth told TechCrunch.
Founded in 2013, Kahoot runs an online platform with more than 70 million monthly active users that allows users to create their own games focused on any educational subject.
The underlying concept was first proposed by Alf Inge Wang, a professor at NTNU, whose student Morten Versvik then led the research that resulted in the formation of Kahoot.
The company has now raised a total of approximately $58m, most recently securing $17m in a March 2018 round featuring M12, the investment unit of software company Microsoft then known as Microsoft Ventures, as well as Datum Invest, Northzone, Creandum and Kahoot chairman Eilert Hanoa.
The March round, which valued Kahoot at $100m according to TechCrunch, came after a $20m series A closed in July 2017 that included M12, Northzone, Creandum and unnamed private investors. Furuseth told TechCrunch its backers also include entertainment conglomerate Walt Disney.
“Disney is an investor already and they have an option to become a larger shareholder,” Furuseth said. “This round was specifically around the Nordic region and Nordic investment bankers, who were interested in acquiring shares because of our growth and what we are doing in the learning space.”
– A version of this story first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
