PlaySay, the Spanish language learning mobile app that was built by a former Temple student before trekking to the Bay Area, was purchased by Berlin-based rival Babbel last month.
PlaySay was founded in 2008 by Ryan Meinzer, a Temple Fox business school student who moved the effort to Washington D.C. in September 2011 when he pitched at TechCrunch Disrupt. In 2012, he moved his team to San Francisco.
The cost of the acquisition was, as is often the case, undisclosed, though EduKwest, using back-of-the-envelope math, notes that since 2008 Meinzer and company have raised $820,000, so even a purchase of $2 million for, say, 1 million users who have downloaded the tool would be an affordable user acquisition. Babbel has said it won’t use any of PlaySay technology and Meinzer will be offered a U.S. adviser role.
Read more from the Wall Street Journal.
Earlier this year, Wharton-born course management startup Lore that had moved to New York was acquired by a bigger player in its market.
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