Telecommunications and internet group SoftBank provided $215m for Norway-headquartered online learning platform developer Kahoot today through a private placement.
The deal will involve SoftBank buying 43 million shares priced at NOK43.00 ($5.00) each, giving the corporate a 9.7% stake and valuing Kahoot above $2.2bn. It also includes a provision preventing SoftBank from increasing its stake past 10% in the next six months.
Kahoot is the creator of an online platform that uses gamification to help children, students and adults learn. More than 200 million games have been played through the platform over the past year.
The deal came four months after venture capital firm Northzone and Kahoot CEO Eilert Hanoa supplied $28m for the company through a separate private placement to take its total funding to $118m.
M12, the corporate venturing subsidiary of software provider Microsoft then known as Microsoft Ventures, joined fellow existing investor Northzone and Creandum in a $20m round closed by Kahoot in 2017.
All three returned alongside Kahoot chairman Eilert Hanoa in a $17m round in March 2018 that valued the company at $100m. That valuation was increased to $300m seven months later in a $15.3m round led by Datum Invest and backed by unnamed additional investors.
Media and entertainment group Walt Disney subsequently paid approximately $15m for a 4% stake in the company in December 2018.
ABG Sundal Collier, Arctic Securities and Goldman Sachs International were placement agents to Kahoot for the transaction while Advokatfirmaet Thommessen was legal counsel.
