Reed Elsevier leads $10m series-B round for Babbel

Prior to the funding round led by Reed Elsevier, Babbel had received a total of $2.2m in equity and debt financing from VCs, the European Regional Development Fund and the State of Berlin. Existing investor IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft invested from its Technologie Berlin fund.

Babbel will use the fresh capital to accelerate international expansion in Europe, the US and emerging markets as well as develop its product to suit new mobile technologies.

The company behind Babbel, Lesson Nine, recently acquired its US competitor PlaySay, which was financed by the company's operational cashflow.

Company
Babbel is an online learning product that specialises in foreign languages. The company is run by Lesson Nine and offers 13 languages to more than 15 million people in 190 countries worldwide.

Lesson Nine and Babbel were founded in Berlin in 2007. Since 2011, the company's turnover has grown 200% per annum, yielding a positive cashflow over the past two years. Babbel employs 170 freelancers and permanent staff.

People
The team of investors working on the deal comprised Tony Askew (Reed Elsevier), Walter Masalin (Nokia Growth Partners), Marco Zeller (IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft) and Michael Greve (Kizoo).

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