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.
Before you go...
Please consider supporting Technical.ly to keep our independent journalism strong. Unlike most business-focused media outlets, we don’t have a paywall. Instead, we count on your personal and organizational support.
3 ways to support our work:- Contribute to the Journalism Fund. Charitable giving ensures our information remains free and accessible for residents to discover workforce programs and entrepreneurship pathways. This includes philanthropic grants and individual tax-deductible donations from readers like you.
- Use our Preferred Partners. Our directory of vetted providers offers high-quality recommendations for services our readers need, and each referral supports our journalism.
- Use our services. If you need entrepreneurs and tech leaders to buy your services, are seeking technologists to hire or want more professionals to know about your ecosystem, Technical.ly has the biggest and most engaged audience in the mid-Atlantic. We help companies tell their stories and answer big questions to meet and serve our community.
Join our growing Slack community
Join 5,000 tech professionals and entrepreneurs in our community Slack today!