NEW
YORK and LONDON /PRNewswire/
-- McGraw-Hill Education, a
learning science company, today announced that it has taken a €6
million (approximately $6.5
million) minority equity stake in busuu, the world's largest
social network for language learning with more than 55 million
users. The transaction includes an agreement that will give
McGraw-Hill Education exclusive global rights to distribute busuu
to B2B customers, including schools, private language institutions
and corporations. Additionally, the two companies will explore
adding McGraw-Hill Education's industry-leading adaptive learning
technology to busuu products.
Founded in 2008, busuu has been adding as many as 100,000 users
each day. The product has a strong market presence
in Brazil, Russia, China, Turkey, Germany and
the U.S. The company offers free and paid audio-visual language
courses for 12 languages and includes direct interaction with
native speakers around the world. Approximately two-thirds of
busuu's users access the platform via mobile devices.
"We
see tremendous opportunities with the powerful combination
McGraw-Hill Education's global reach and the scale and innovative
mobile solutions of busuu," said Mark
Dorman, president of McGraw-Hill Education's International
& Professional group. "The global market for language
instruction totals $60
billion annually and is growing rapidly. The innovative
and mobile busuu solution complements our digital offerings and
opens a number of new sales opportunities for our company."
"For
busuu, this alliance allows us to quickly grow our market
penetration with a trusted name such as McGraw-Hill Education,"
added Bernhard
Niesner, CEO of busuu. "We are especially excited to explore
adding McGraw-Hill Education's adaptive capabilities to our
platform and believe this will revolutionize the way people learn
languages."
About McGraw-Hill Education
McGraw-Hill
Education is a learning science company that delivers personalized
learning experiences that help students, parents, educators and
professionals drive results. McGraw-Hill Education has offices
across North
America, India, China, Europe,
the Middle
East and South
America, and makes its learning solutions available in
nearly 60 languages. Visit us at mheducation.com or find us
on Facebook or Twitter.
About busuu
busuu was founded seven
years ago with the goal of changing the way in which people learn
languages. The company is committed to revolutionizing the language
learning process through the use of technology. With over 55
million users and with 12 languages to study, busuu is one of the
world's leading digital learning apps. The company is named after
the language of Busuu in Cameroon,
spoken by only eight people.
Contacts:
Daniel
Sieger
McGraw-Hill Education
(646)-766-2001
[email protected]
Jasmin
Schawalder
busuu
+44-790427-15-88
[email protected]