Kahoot! turned the classroom quiz into a globally addictive game show. Teachers project questions on a screen, students race to answer on their phones, and somehow this is both educational and genuinely fun. A Norwegian startup built on the radical idea that learning should feel like playing. Then they discovered the real money was in corporate training, not classrooms. It listed in Oslo, and in January 2024 a consortium led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management bought the whole thing for about $1.7 billion and took it off the exchange.
Founded
2012
HQ
Oslo, Norway
Total Raised
$400 Million+
Founder
Johan Brand, Jamie Brooker, Morten Versvik, Alf Inge Wang
Status
Private (taken private by Goldman Sachs consortium, 2024)
Verified Sep 2026
Website
www.kahoot.comTHE ORIGIN STORY
Kahoot! grew out of a research project at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
Johan Brand, Jamie Brooker, Morten Versvik and Professor Alf Inge Wang were exploring how game mechanics could improve learning engagement. Their research showed that competition, time pressure, and immediate feedback dramatically increased information retention.
They launched Kahoot! publicly in 2013 as a free tool for teachers.
It went viral in schools worldwide because students were actually excited about quizzes. The game-show format, with music, countdown timers and leaderboards, made learning feel like a competition rather than a chore.
WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO
Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform.
The core product is free for basic classroom use — teachers create quizzes, students join via a game PIN and compete in real time. Revenue comes from premium subscriptions for teachers (Kahoot!+ for $5-10/month), enterprise contracts (Kahoot!
for business, $20+/user/month for training and corporate events), and school/district licenses. The enterprise segment is the fastest-growing revenue driver.
The platform also includes Drops (language learning) and Actimo (employee engagement) from acquisitions.
THE PRODUCTS
Kahoot! quiz platform (free + premium), Kahoot!
for Business (enterprise training), Kahoot! EDU (school licenses), Drops (language learning), Kahoot!
Academy (shared content library)
HOW THEY GREW
Grow the enterprise segment aggressively — corporate training is a $350 billion market and game-based learning is underrepresented. Expand through acquisitions (Drops, Actimo, Clever) to own more of the learning stack.
Integrate AI to auto-generate quizzes from documents. Push into self-paced learning modes beyond live events.
THE HARD PART
Monetizing a product that millions of teachers use for free. The freemium-to-paid conversion for education users is notoriously difficult — schools have tiny budgets and teachers are used to free tools.
Kahoot! solved this by pivoting hard to enterprise (corporate training, onboarding, team events), where budgets are larger and willingness to pay is higher.
MONEY TRAIL
Series A
2017 · Led by Northzone
$10M raised
Growth investment
2020 · Led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2
$215M raised
Oslo Børs main listing
2021 · Led by
$200M raised
Take-private acquisition
2024 · Led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management
$1.7B raised
WHO BACKED THEM
Owned since January 2024 by a consortium led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, alongside General Atlantic, KIRKBI (the LEGO family holding company) and Glitrafjord, the vehicle of CEO Eilert Hanoa. Before the take-private, Kahoot!
was listed on Oslo Børs and counted SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Northzone, Microsoft and Disney among its backers.
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