Norwegian education start-up Kahoot targets Asian expansion

Posted By : Tama Putranto
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Norwegian online education start-up Kahoot is looking to use its biggest shareholder SoftBank to crack Asia and is on the hunt for acquisitions as it launches a “re-IPO” to a main market listing in Oslo.

Kahoot, which offers educational quizzes online for schools, families and businesses, is hoping a move from Oslo’s junior market to its main list will increase its attractiveness to local and international institutional investors and could seek a secondary listing abroad, according to chief executive Eilert Hanoa.

The Norwegian edtech, which also counts Microsoft and Disney as large shareholders, is currently valued at NKr50bn ($6bn) with the vast majority of its $45m in invoiced revenue last year coming from North America and Europe where Kahoot has become popular in the classroom and for birthday parties at home.

“Asia is a priority. We need great content, we need partnerships. This is where, with SoftBank as a shareholder and their impressive portfolio of companies, we hope there will be opportunities,” Hanoa told the Financial Times.

Kahoot is hoping to double its revenues this year and then again to $200m by 2023, as it adds more services to its core quiz app. It recently bought Drops to help with language learning and Whiteboard.fi that gives students their own digital whiteboards, and Hanoa said more acquisitions or joint ventures could help accelerate Kahoot’s growth further.

Teachers, families and businesses can set up multiple-choice quizzes on Kahoot in which users enter answers through their mobiles or computers. It is free for schools and home users but premium subscriptions with more features and ready-made quizzes can be bought. About 60 per cent of its revenues come from business users with companies such as Facebook, Berkshire Hathaway and Nasdaq using it for interactive training and events.

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Hanoa said he had been impressed by Japan’s SoftBank, which owns 16 per cent of Kahoot, and their mixture of using “financial muscle and operational excellence”. He added: “They have a very clear idea of what they want to achieve. They might be unorthodox in some of their approaches but that might be responsible for their success.”

He added that there were so many edtech providers in the world that there was likely to be a wave of acquisitions, with Kahoot hoping to play the role of consolidator due to its reach with 1.5bn players last year. “There might be a need to consolidate these initiatives. For instance, a teacher can’t subscribe to 10 of these services. Probably there will be a consolidation of solutions and ways to consume these services,” he said.

Hanoa said the move to Oslo’s main market — due to take place later this month — was “definitely an important milestone for us. We believe it’s a great endorsement of the company that we are admitted. But it’s definitely not an end game or a goal in itself.”

Shares in Kahoot climbed 3 per cent on Thursday to NKr112 after it announced its move to the main market.

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