Latest news with #Duolingo
Business Insider
6 hours ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Language app Babbel has a new CEO. Here's what he's learned about leading from day one
Since joining Babbel as its new CEO last week, Tim Allen has made a point of avoiding a leadership mistake he said he made earlier in his career. Instead of barreling in with his ideas for the language-learning company, Allen (the executive, not the actor) said he's been going around the office asking employees for their insights on the business. "The biggest lesson I've learned is to give space to some of the emotional undercurrents that have to happen with change," Allen, who previously helmed U.S. companies Vimeo, and told Business Insider. "That is something that I think people who are new CEOs at times can miss." Incoming leaders who announce plans for upheaval at a company the moment they come on board can create unnecessary stress for workers, warned Allen. "What ends up happening is people just feel the whiplash of the change," he said. Like many other companies, though, privately held Babbel is undergoing a transition period due to the artificial-intelligence boom. It recently added its first AI tool to its platform, which lets users practice their conversational skills with bots in select languages. Previously, users had to sign up for classes with live instructors to practice those skills. Babbel has said it plans to deploy more AI tools later this year. In May, Luis von Ahn, the CEO of Babbel rival Duolingo, faced social-media blowback after he described in a LinkedIn post plans to make his company "AI-first" and said that it would "gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle." (He later walked back those remarks, saying in a follow-up post that he sees AI as a tool that can accelerate the work that Duolingo's employees do.) Allen told Business Insider that at Babbel, AI will complement the work of its human language instructors, not replace them. The technology will "accelerate the starting point of the humans who are experts in their field on creating course content," he said. Babbel was formed in 2007. Initially, its three founders set out to build a music platform but quickly pivoted after a casual conversation about learning Spanish sent them looking for an online solution that didn't seem to exist. In 2021, Babbel shelved plans to go public, citing unfavorable market conditions at the time. Allen said he isn't reconsidering an initial public offering. "We're growing and we don't need capital to execute our strategy," Allen said. Remaining private "gives us freedom to stay focused on all of the learner outcomes we want and not the short-term market noise of what we would've had to contend with." Today, Babbel is also cashflow positive and it's sold more than 25 million subscriptions to its platform, which range in price from $17.95 for one month to $107.40 for a year. Allen, 47, is taking over the reins at Babbel from co-founder Markus Witte, who is now executive chairman. He said he learned about the job when he received a call earlier this year from a recruiter with executive-search firm Egon Zehnder. Now living in Berlin after relocating with family from Texas, Allen said he can read German, but doesn't yet speak it fluently. He expects that to change over time because he's using Babbel's platform to help him level up. "I can count to 10, which I think is a big milestone," he joked. While Babbel's several hundred employees represent more than 80 nationalities, Allen said many of his new peers have already teased him about having the same name as the star of the American '90s sitcom "Home Improvement." "It's actually a really good icebreaker," said Allen. "They know that show."
Time of India
12 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Figma's much-anticipated IPO: All you need to know
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills Cloud-based designer platform Figma has publicly disclosed the prospectus of its much- anticipated initial public offering (IPO) in the US. The company had filed its papers confidentially in issue will be one of the most high-profile listings this year, suggesting that anxieties stemming from US tariffs are calming IPO comes over a year after Figma's $20 billion deal to be acquired by Adobe was shelved by all you need to know about Figma and its public specialises in collaborative interface design, enabling teams to work together in real time on design projects, much like Google at around $12.5 billion, the company has expanded its offerings beyond design to include tools for website creation, AI programming, branded marketing, and digital in San Francisco, Figma was founded by Dylan Field and Evan Wallace in 2012. Duolingo, Mercado Libre, Netflix, Pentagram Design, ServiceNow, and Stripe are among its major global customers. Indian brands Zomato Swiggy , Cred and Groww also use its platform. Field had told ET last November that Figma is keen on tapping India's vast pool of designers and product developers to better support its customers. He had said around 85% of Figma's weekly active users are from outside the US, and a substantial number are from India.'There is a real revenue opportunity in India. It is a myth that you cannot monetise India,' Field had said then, adding that as Figma spends more time in India, it will be able to find areas to improve its services 2022, Photoshop maker Adobe announced plans to acquire Figma for $20 billion. However, last year, the two companies jointly declared the termination of the deal following scrutiny from UK and EU regulators on antitrust issues. Adobe was obligated to pay Figma a reverse termination fee of $1 billion in the aftermath of the Adobe deal fallout, Figma worked on strengthening its books. In the first three months of 2025, it reported $228.2 million in revenue, compared with $156.2 million a year earlier, and its net income jumped threefold to $44.9 2024, it had generated $749 million in revenue, a 48% increase from company was profitable in 2023 but reported a large net loss of $732 million in 2024, because of a one-time expense related to issuing 10.5 million stock options to employees. Profit returned in the fourth quarter of 2024, and continued this has raised around $750 million in funding so far from investors such as Sequoia Capital and Andreessen company plans to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "FIG".Lead banks for the IPO include Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Allen & Co, and JP company said it will use the IPO proceeds to fund growth initiatives, double down on AI investments, and repay debt.
Chicago Tribune
12 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Liz Shulman: Will Big Tech transform school into an AI video game?
'Why am I learning AI if it's going to eventually take my job?' one of my students asked me at the end of the school year. 'I don't know,' I said. 'I wonder the same thing about mine.' Students are off for the summer, but Big Tech is working hard pitching its brand to schools, marketing its products to students as 'homework buddies' and 'personal tutors' and to educators as 'teaching assistants' and 'work pals' while undermining the entire field of education and sending out a sea of mixed messages. We all have reason to worry. The dizzying pace at which artificial intelligence has infiltrated schools and dominated the discourse within education has left the classroom a battleground of contradictions. Our fears aren't hyperbolic. Schools in Texas and Arizona are already using AI to 'teach' kids with educators as mere 'guides' rather than experts in their content area. Last year, one of my seniors told me she preferred AI to her teachers 'because I can talk to AI in the middle of the night, but my teachers don't email me back until the next morning.' In May, Luis von Ahn, CEO of the foreign language education app Duolingo, said: 'It's just a lot more scalable to teach with AI than with teachers.' Schools will exist mostly just for child care. And President Donald Trump's April 23 executive order calls for the use of AI in schools, claiming the 'early exposure' will spark 'curiosity and creativity.' This pressure isn't only coming from the White House. Education websites have uncritically embraced AI at a stunning pace. Edutopia used to highlight resources for teaching literature, history, art, math and science and instead is dominated now by AI 'tools' marketed to burned-out, overworked educators to save time. EdTechTeacher and call AI 'knowledgeable colleagues' and 'friendly buddies,' shifting away from teachers' specific subject areas. If this isn't dizzying enough, when we educators are directed or forced to use AI in our teaching, we're criticized when we do. What's really happening in the classroom is this: Teachers are unable to teach the problem-solving skills kids will need as they grow up and are blamed when an entire generation is outsourcing their imaginations to Big Tech. No wonder test scores have plunged, and anxiety and depression have risen. Yet in glossy AI advertisements paid with the billions of dollars Big Tech is making off schools, the classroom is portrayed as student-centered spaces where kids engage with personalized technology that differentiates better than teachers as though it's just another school supply item like the pencil cases on their desks. The kids know it. When I teach grammar, students want to use Grammarly. When we read a book together, they say ChatGPT can summarize it for them in seconds. When I teach them any part of the writing process, they list the dozens of AI apps that are designed to 'write' the essay for them. Students readily admit they use AI to cheat, but they're constantly getting messages to use their 'writing coach,' 'debate-partner' and 'study buddy.' It's always been an uphill battle for educators to get kids to like school. It's part of the profession. 'It's our job to push students, and it's our students' job to resist,' a mentor told me when I was a new teacher. 'In the middle,' he continued, 'therein lies learning.' Wherein lies learning now? Will school become a video game packaged as, well, school? If educators don't teach writing, we're told we're not teaching students how to communicate. If we don't teach reading, we're told we're not teaching them how to think critically. If we don't teach them business skills, we're told we're not preparing them to enter the workforce. Now we're being told if we don't teach them AI, we're not preparing them for their future that consists of what, exactly? The future that's poised to steal their jobs? At the end of the school year in my freshman English class, we read Erich Remarque's novel 'All Quiet on the Western Front.' I asked my ninth graders to choose passages that stood out to them. Many of them chose this one: 'We are forlorn like children, and experienced like old men. We are crude and sorrowful and superficial — I believe we are lost.' They noticed the alienation the soldiers feel from themselves. I wondered if it's how they felt, too — estranged from their own selves. Ironically, their discovery showed the whole point of reading literature — to understand oneself and the world better and to increase one's capacity for empathy and compassion. As my mentor teacher told me decades ago, therein lies learning. Our kids have become soldiers caught on the front lines in the battle for education, stuck in the crossfire of Big Tech and school. The classroom — a sacred space that should prioritize human learning, discovery and academic risk-taking — has become a flashpoint in America, and our kids are in the center of it. I recently finished reading 'The Road Back,' Remarque's sequel to 'All Quiet on the Western Front.' The novel dramatizes the ongoing alienation of the soldiers once they've returned home from war. 'Why can't you let the kids enjoy the few years that are left to them,' Willy, one of the soldiers pleads, 'while they need still know nothing about it?' Is the classroom going to remain a torched battleground such as the one my students read about in 'All Quiet on the Western Front' — kids hunkering in the trenches of our schools while the adults fight over the eroded terrain of education? Will they become even more cut off from their own selves, just when they're getting to know who they are?
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
87% of business leaders think AI agents will replace human employees if companies don't make big moves to upskill their workforce
Good morning! Companies are scrambling to introduce AI agents into their workflow at a rapid clip. But workers are afraid that this tech revolution may actually lead to their own professional demise, and a new study shows that they have good reason to be worried. Around 87% of business leaders believe AI agents will displace workers unless companies are willing to upskill their employees, according to management consulting firm KPMG's latest AI Quarterly Pulse Survey. That includes providing additional training, creating new goals, or even changing their roles. 'Our clients are no longer asking 'if' AI will transform their business, they're asking 'how fast' it can be deployed,' notes Todd Lohr, head of ecosystems at KPMG. 'This isn't just about technology adoption, it's about fundamental business transformation that requires reimagining how work gets done and how it is measured.' The deployment of AI agents across organizations has tripled since the fourth quarter of last year, according to the report. Around 82% of business leaders believe that AI agents will become valuable contributors within the next year, and the same number believe these agents will completely change the business landscape in the next two years. CEOs have recently become bolder about saying that AI could lead to leaner human workforces. The CEO of Anthropic said earlier this year that AI could eliminate half of entry level roles. The CEO of language learning app Duolingo told staff in April that they could only hire a new person if they first proved the task couldn't be done with AI. And Meta recently announced plans to replace up to 90% of its human employees who review the platform's privacy and societal risks with AI. Upskilling employees might be easier said than done, though. While two-thirds of leaders expect employees to update their AI skills, only a third say the companies they work for are providing policies around how the technology should be used, according to recent research from talent advisory The Adecco Group. A separate study from management consulting firm Oliver Wyman found that while 79% of workers want AI training, only 57% say such upskilling efforts made by their company have been inadequate. 'As employers, we have a responsibility to help prepare current and future workers for the transition to a new era of work,' writes Edwige Sacco, head of workforce innovation at KPMG. 'Investments in human-centric change management, modern ways of learning, proactive upskilling, and new human-AI collaboration models are essential for unlocking the long-term return on AI investments.' Brit This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Forbes
2 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
$40 Mic To $650 Million Fund: How Harry Stebbings Is Rewiring European Venture
"Venture is about finding, picking, winning and helping. And none of it matters if you can't win," says Harry Stebbings, who founded London-based firm 20VC. courtesy of Stebbings I n a dimly lit podcast studio in London, Harry Stebbings–clad in his uniform of short shorts and running shoes–sits across Severin Hacker, cofounder of the $23 billion (market cap) language-learning app Duolingo. Stebbings, the host and the proud Brit, can't help but bring up the state of the European tech ecosystem. Hacker doesn't hesitate: 'I can guarantee Duolingo would not have been able to raise any money in Europe. We had zero revenue for the first five years. No European would have invested.' That sentiment is exactly why Stebbings is in the room. At 28 years old, the podcaster-turned-venture-capitalist manages some $650 million through his firm, 20VC. It's rapidly become one of Europe's most active firms, drawing capital from powerhouses like Rothschild Capital and MIT, and boasting a portfolio that includes unicorns like $2 billion Mercor and $1.3 billion LinkTree. His ambition? To be Europe's top early stage investor. And make sure the next Duolingo doesn't have to go transatlantic to find cash. "European governments do not understand that we are in a war for talent," Stebbings tells Forbes . "Europe has more than enough money. What it doesn't have is great regulatory frameworks or a great VC ecosystem." London is home to heavyweights like Balderton Capital, an early backer of $45 billion fintech giant Revolut, and Atomico, which was among the first to invest in Sweden's Klarna. But when Klarna gears up for its IPO, it's the New York Stock Exchange that gets the nod. British semiconductor giant Arm made a similar move, opting for a $54.5 billion IPO on the Nasdaq. The disparity in private markets is just as stark: In 2024, venture capitalists poured $209 billion into the U.S, compared to just $51 billion in Europe. Whether it's public or private, says PitchBook analyst Navina Rajan, the U.S. is simply more bullish and Europe still far more conservative. This lack of risk appetite in Europe is where Stebbings thinks 20VC can find its niche. He bypasses the usual waiting game for polished pitch decks and positive margins, backing founders based purely on ambition. Now might be his moment. As U.S. markets grapple with political uncertainty—trade wars and real wars alike—cracks are starting to show. Markets are fluctuating, valuations are falling, IPOs are stalling. Andreessen Horowitz even closed its U.K. office just a year after opening it. 'The competition [in Europe] is so weak. If we are insanely aggressive and ambitious, we should be the best seed and Series A player,' Stebbings says. 'Don't get me wrong, we can play and win in the Valley, too, but do I want to bet my whole strategy on beating Mark Andreessen when he's going to drive founders to his house?' S tebbings was 13 when he watched The Social Network and found his calling. He didn't see himself in Zuckerberg, but in Peter Thiel, the investor behind the scenes who made Facebook happen. A self-described 'friendless' teenager in suburban London, Stebbings fell in love with venture capital the way some kids get into comic books. After graduating high school, he traded lecture halls for a $40 microphone and transformed his childhood bedroom into a makeshift studio. Instead of wasting money, and years, on a business degree, he'd start a podcast and learn on the job. Soon he was cold-emailing Silicon Valley royalty and interviewing them firsthand. His pitch was simple: "All I need is 20 minutes.' The first guest on The Twenty Minute VC was Guy Kawasaki, Apple's former chief evangelist. Stebbings' outreach was unrelenting—53 emails before Marc Andreessen said yes. Within a few years, he had accumulated wisdom from almost every major VC. The podcast's popularity earned him a spot on the Forbes Under 30 Europe list in 2019, more than 100 million downloads and a direct line into the private capital elite. The pivotal shift came when his mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The show started tapping sponsors and generating some revenue about two years in, but it was time to make real money. Stebbings reached out to the powerful friends he made along the way (we're talking founders of companies like Spotify and Robinhood) via WhatsApp. $200,000 here and $250,000 there. Within three days, he raised his first fund of $8.3 million in 2020. The podcast didn't go away. Instead, it became 20VC's most valuable asset. Clips regularly go viral, racking up as many as 8 million views on YouTube Shorts. On the audio front, the podcast saw 25 million downloads last month alone. Weekly episodes featuring guests like Sam Altman, Reid Hoffman, and founders from 20VC's own portfolio, now double as deal flow for the firm and baked-in exposure for the founders. "What intrigued us was he had a very differentiated model, bringing part of that media business alongside 20VC," says Maggie Fanari, CEO of J. Rothschild Capital Management. "If you talk to Harry, you're going to end up talking about what the world will look like five years from now. That differentiation in his thinking is what will continue to make him very successful. He's top 5%." Rothschild and MIT backed 20VC's $400 million third fund last year, marking the largest raise for an early stage European VC. The fund closed in just four months, and was a significant leap from its $140 million predecessor. The relationships were years in the making, but Fanari says Stebbings' track record–and especially his network–spoke for itself. To attract top founders, 20VC offers more than money. It's created three internal subfunds—20Sales, 20Product and 20Growth—each staffed with eight experienced operators from tech giants like OpenAI, Spotify and LinkedIn. When a founder receives a term sheet from 20VC, they also get access to a group of expert mentors. "It's particularly important if you're a European founder," says Richard Hollingsworth, founder of AI startup Fyxer, a 20VC portfolio company. "What you're getting is a local investor with an American mindset, and an American network." With 20VC's check sizes capped at $15 million, Stebbings must move with exceptional speed. Case in point: When Hollingsworth flew to San Francisco to raise his seed round, Stebbings called him mid-trip, led a $10 million round, and even secured Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff as a co-investor to sweeten the deal. Stebbings is nothing if not consistent. Each day, he's up at 8:15, on back-to-back calls by 8:30, powerwalking through Hyde Park—20,000 steps logged before most people check their email. Office till 7 p.m, then more meetings on foot. Dinner's always the exact same: sashimi from Notting Hill Fish Shop, also his only meal of the day. From 9 p.m to 1 a.m, he works from home. Then it's a lit joint, a TikTok scroll worthy of an investigative reporter studying analytics and trends, and notes sent to his team at 2 a.m. His weekends? He'll run 26 miles on Saturdays, then walk 26 more alongside his mother on Sundays. Both days end at the podcast studio. While the schedule has still kept the young man single, 20VC has now secured a stake in nearly every flashy, young European startup. AI software startup Lovable, which reached $17 million in revenue within three months; Slay, a Forbes Under 30 company creating consumer apps across gaming, and BeReal, the social media platform which recently exited for $500 million. He's claimed his share of U.S. startups too, from the $3 billion (valuation) startup Remote to AI job recruitment platform Mercor. Many of the portfolio companies had little to no revenue when Stebbings first invested. Some have since pivoted entirely from their original ideas. His investment decisions hinge on the founder. One of his go-to questions: What was your first job? The ideal answer usually reveals early signs of entrepreneurship. If a founder isn't 'unhealthily obsessed' (quite like himself), he walks away. Meanwhile, the competition is multi-billion-dollar funds. "The future of venture capital will be Chanel and Walmart," Stebbings says about his smaller check size. "Walmart is Sequoia, SoftBank … walls of money that are almost infinite in supply. Chanel has a very specific customer base and a very precise product." 20VC, he implies, will be the Chanel of venture capital. N ow, in a bold expansion of his thesis, Stebbings has launched a venture called Project Europe with CEO Kitty Mayo. The initiative aims to spot European talent early on and keep them on home turf. The goal is to invest $200,000 into founders under the age of 25, each with ideas capable of becoming billion-dollar businesses. Launching Project Europe was surprisingly quick. Yet again, Stebbings messaged friends across his extensive VC network via WhatsApp. This time, within weeks, he raised $10 million from nearly 200 European founders, including those behind Klarna, GitHub and Duolingo. Each of these investors will be paired with a mentee, the first of which has already been selected. And despite it being the perfect vehicle for 20VC's deal flow in the long run, Stebbings swears that's not the point. "This is about telling the world that great entrepreneurs do come from Europe," he says. "A kid in the suburbs of London started a podcast with a posh British accent and now manages three quarters of a billion dollars. I'm proof anyone can achieve their dreams with a lot of hard work and low IQ."
