Update: This announcement is now out of date. McGraw Hill no longer has exclusive global rights to distribute Busuu to B2B customers. Busuu is now part of the Chegg family of companies.
McGraw Hill to market and distribute Busuu to B2B customers around the world and explore adding adaptive capabilities to Busuu
NEW YORK and LONDON – JULY 15, 2015 – McGraw Hill, 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 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’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 learners access the platform via mobile devices.
“We see tremendous opportunities with the powerful combination McGraw Hill’s global reach and the scale and innovative mobile solutions of Busuu,” said Mark Dorman, president of McGraw’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,” added Bernhard Niesner, CEO of Busuu. “We are especially excited to explore adding McGraw’s adaptive capabilities to our platform and believe this will revolutionise the way people learn languages.”
About McGraw Hill
McGraw Hill is a learning science company that delivers personalised learning experiences that help students, parents, educators and professionals drive results. McGraw Hill 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 revolutionising 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 a handful of people.
