Gamified e-learning platform Kahoot gets acquired in a $1.7B deal led by Goldman Sachs, Lego and more

techcrunch.com:

Big moves ahead for Kahoot, the Oslo startup that’s built a popular platform for users to create, share and play education-focused “games”, played by billions of students and adults over the years. The company has announced that it is going fully private in an all-cash PE deal at 35 NOK per share, valuing Kahoot at $1.7 billion (17.2 billion Norwegian kroner) based on 492,836,049 shares issued and outstanding.

The private equity division of Goldman Sachs Assets Management is leading the acquisition, with existing Kahoot backers General Atlantic (currently its largest shareholder), LEGO Group’s KIRKBI Invest A/S (“KIRKBI”) and Glitrafjord (controlled by Kahoot CEO Eilert Hanoa) named as the other major shareholders in the deal. Unnamed other investors and management also will have stakes in Kahoot.

The deal represents a premium on Kahoot’s publicly traded shares as of yesterday — specifically 53.1% to the closing price on the Oslo Stock Exchange on 22nd May 2023 (when it was NOK 22.86).

However, it’s a major step down from the company’s highest valuation at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, and as such it represents one more example of how tech companies are struggling in the economic climate for financing even as they grow.

Kahoot was one of the wave of remote learning startups that saw its star rise as people stayed away from physical classrooms and office spaces, giving the company — which has separate divisions that serve K-12 students and adults/businesses — a lot of business, and attention from investors.

Kahoot says that to date it has hosted “hundreds of millions of learning sessions with 9 billion (non-unique) participants in more than 200 countries and regions,” and that it currently has more than 1 million paying