An investor consortium led by Goldman Sachs has agreed to acquire Kahoot ASA, an Oslo-based provider of education software for schools and enterprises.

The deal was announced today. The investor consortium’s offer values Kahoot at 17.2 billion Norwegian kroner, or about $1.72 billion. That amounts to 35 kroner per share, which is 53.1% higher than the company’s last unaffected closing price on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

Besides Goldman Sachs, the investor consortium buying Kahoot also includes growth equity firm General Atlantic, the software maker’s largest shareholder. A number of other institutional backers participated as well. One of them is a company called Glitrafjord AS that is affiliated with Kahoot Chief Executive Officer Eilert Hanoa.

“Since General Atlantic partnered with Kahoot! in September 2022, the company has maintained significant momentum across key strategic initiatives, including scaling its enterprise offering and global subscriber base,” said General Atlantic managing director Chris Caulkin. “Through this transaction, we are pleased to deepen our commitment to support Kahoot!’s long-term growth in collaboration with the broader co-investor group.”

Kahoot provides a software platform that enables users to create and share quizzes for educational purposes. The platform offers ready-made questions that remove the need to create everything from scratch, as well as other time-saving features. Users can optionally embed multimedia elements such as drawings next to each question.

The company launched in 2013 with an initial focus on the education sector. Five years later, it introduced an enterprise version of its platform. The software maker says the latter offering is now used by about 97% of the Fortune 500 as well as many other organizations.

Companies use the enterprise version of Kahoot to support their employee training programs. A marketing department, for example, could create quizzes to evaluate team members’ familiarity with a newly deployed advertising tool. Quizzes powered by its platform are also useful for other tasks, such as increasing attendee engagement at business conferences.

Kahoot reported its preliminary second-quarter financial results in conjunction with today’s acquisition announcement. The company’s revenue grew 14% year-over-year, to $41 million, during the quarter. Its adjusted EBITDA, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, reached $11 million after jumping 60% from the same time a year earlier.

The investment consortium buying Kahoot plans to help the company further grow its business. As part of the initiative, the software maker will receive “access to the capital needed to significantly enhance its go-to-market strategy.” Additionally, Kahoot indicated that it plans to make acquisitions following the deal’s completion. 

Image: Kahoot