Who owns Kahoot? Ownership structure explained (2026)

Kahoot! is one of the few genuinely global consumer technology brands to come out of Norway. Its quiz format, with players answering on their phones while a shared screen counts down, became a fixture in classrooms and offices worldwide during the 2010s. By its own count, the platform has hosted billions of participating players across more than 200 countries and regions.

The ownership story is unusually eventful for a company this size. Kahoot! went from a university spin-out to a SoftBank-backed startup, to a public company on the Oslo Børs, and then back into private hands inside a single decade. Along the way, some of the largest names in technology and media held stakes, and the valuation swung from a few hundred million dollars to nearly six billion and back down again.

Today the company is owned by a private consortium built around three anchor investors. Understanding who those investors are, how much they paid, and why they took the company off the public market explains a great deal about where Kahoot! is headed as an education technology business.

Kahoot! traces its origins to 2011 and 2012 in Trondheim and Oslo, Norway. The core technology grew out of a research project at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, where Morten Versvik worked with Professor Alf Inge Wang on making learning more interactive through games. Versvik teamed up with entrepreneurs Johan Brand and Jamie Brooker, and the group later brought in Åsmund Furuseth, who became an early chief executive. The commercial entity, initially operating as Mobitroll, launched the Kahoot! product in a private beta in 2013 before opening it to the public.

The business model centers on game-based learning. The free consumer app drives adoption, while paid subscriptions for teachers, schools, and businesses generate the bulk of revenue. Over time Kahoot! assembled a wider portfolio through acquisitions, adding the DragonBox math apps, the Drops and Poio language and reading apps, the Whiteboard.fi classroom tool, the Actimo and Motimate corporate engagement platforms, and the US K-12 platform Clever.

Headquartered in Oslo, Kahoot! reported revenue of roughly $180 million for 2022, its last full year as a public company, up from about $91 million in 2021. The take-private deal completed in January 2024 valued the equity at NOK 17.2 billion, or about $1.7 billion.

Kahoot! is privately held. It was previously listed, trading first on the Merkur Market and then on the main list of the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker KAHOT, with a US over-the-counter ADR program running alongside. That public chapter ended in January 2024, when the company was delisted from the Oslo Børs after the Goldman Sachs-led consortium secured control. There is no longer a public share price, and the company is not obligated to report quarterly results the way it did as a listed business.

Kahoot! reached the public market in March 2021, near the top of a pandemic surge in demand for remote learning tools. Its shares had traded on the Merkur Market since 2019, and the move to the Oslo Børs main list came as investors chased education technology, in the same wave that later carried rivals like Duolingo to the public market. At its 2021 peak the stock implied a market value approaching $6 billion.

The story then reversed. As classrooms reopened and technology valuations fell, Kahoot!'s shares dropped sharply through 2022. That decline set up the take-private. In July 2023 a consortium led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management agreed to acquire the company through a Norwegian bid vehicle, Kangaroo BidCo, at NOK 35.00 per share in an all-cash offer valuing the equity at NOK 17.2 billion. By mid-January 2024 the consortium held about 94.75% of the shares, triggering a compulsory acquisition of the remainder, and Kahoot! was delisted on January 23, 2024.

The buyer is a group rather than a single owner. Goldman Sachs Asset Management led the deal and holds the largest position. General Atlantic, a growth-equity firm that had been a Kahoot! shareholder before the buyout, joined as a major co-investor. KIRKBI, the private holding and investment company of Denmark's Kristiansen family that also controls the Lego Group, took a significant stake, extending a relationship that dated back to earlier funding rounds.

Two Norwegian vehicles round out the named investors. Glitrafjord is the investment company associated with CEO Eilert Hanoa, and Datter Holding is a further investor in the consortium. Certain members of management also rolled their existing shares into the private company rather than cashing out. The precise split among these holders has not been disclosed publicly, since the private structure is not required to file a detailed cap table.

Kahoot!'s founders no longer control the company. Johan Brand, Jamie Brooker, and Morten Versvik built the business and held meaningful stakes through its startup and public years, but the 2021 listing and years of subsequent share sales diluted and distributed founder ownership. The all-cash take-private then bought out remaining public holders at NOK 35 per share. Any continuing founder economics would sit within the private structure and are not publicly disclosed. CEO Eilert Hanoa, who is not an original founder but joined as a major shareholder and executive, is the founder-era figure with the clearest ongoing ownership, through his Glitrafjord vehicle inside the consortium.

During its growth and public years Kahoot! attracted an unusually high-profile investor base. SoftBank invested $215 million in 2020 for a stake of roughly 10%, making it one of the largest holders heading into the IPO. Microsoft and The Walt Disney Company both took strategic stakes, reflecting Kahoot!'s reach in classrooms and its family-friendly brand. European venture firms Creandum and Northzone were early backers. Most of these investors exited or were bought out through the public listing and the eventual take-private.

Figures for the earlier private rounds are approximate and drawn from reporting at the time. The take-private value of NOK 17.2 billion is the firm confirmed figure from the offer documents.

Eilert Hanoa is chief executive officer and the most important individual in the ownership picture. A Norwegian entrepreneur who previously built and sold software companies, he became a large Kahoot! shareholder and then CEO, and his Glitrafjord vehicle is part of the private consortium. He is the bridge between the founding-era company and its current owners.

Real control now sits with the consortium's institutional investors. Goldman Sachs Asset Management, as lead owner, holds the decisive influence over strategy and governance, with General Atlantic and KIRKBI as the other anchor holders. The board was reconstituted after the take-private to reflect private ownership, so it is drawn from the investor group and management rather than the public-company board that governed the listed entity.

Among the founders, Morten Versvik, Johan Brand, and Jamie Brooker remain associated with the company's history and brand, but they no longer hold controlling stakes or run day-to-day operations. Professor Alf Inge Wang, the academic collaborator on the original NTNU project, is recognized as a co-creator of the underlying concept rather than an owner.

The buyout drew scrutiny common to public-to-private deals. The NOK 35 per share offer was a premium to the depressed trading price but far below the levels long-term holders had seen in 2021. Once the consortium passed the 90% threshold, Norwegian rules allowed a compulsory acquisition of the remaining shares, forcing out minority holders who might have preferred to stay invested. The board recommended the offer, but such squeeze-outs routinely attract complaints about timing and value from investors who bought near the peak.

Kahoot! operates heavily in schools, including with children, which places it under strict data-protection regimes. In the United States its Clever and classroom products fall under laws governing student data such as FERPA and COPPA, and in Europe the platform must comply with GDPR. Handling minors' data at global scale is an ongoing compliance obligation and a source of regulatory risk for any education technology company of this size.

Going private reduced the company's public disclosure. As a listed company Kahoot! reported detailed quarterly financials and shareholder information. As a private company owned by a financial consortium, it discloses far less, which limits outside visibility into its revenue, margins, and the exact ownership split among the consortium members. That opacity is normal for private equity-owned businesses but is a change from the transparency of its public years.

The shift from public company to private consortium changes how Kahoot! is run and measured. Under public ownership the company faced quarterly pressure and a volatile share price that swung with education technology sentiment. Under Goldman Sachs Asset Management and its co-investors, Kahoot! can pursue a longer restructuring and growth plan without reporting every quarter to the market. Private equity owners typically push for tighter cost control, clearer profitability, and a defined exit, whether a future sale or a return to the public market.

The identity of the owners is telling. Goldman Sachs Asset Management brings financial discipline and deal-making capacity. General Atlantic contributes growth-equity experience in scaling software businesses. KIRKBI, the Lego family's investment company, adds patient capital and a strategic interest in learning and play that aligns with Kahoot!'s brand. That combination suggests the consortium sees Kahoot! as a business to strengthen and eventually sell at a higher value, not simply to run for dividends. Sharpening its position against other learning platforms is the kind of work a competitive analysis is built to guide.

For users, teachers, and schools, private ownership is mostly invisible day to day, but it shapes the roadmap. Investment decisions, pricing, and which products get funded now answer to the consortium rather than public shareholders. The corporate and enterprise side of Kahoot!, including its employee-engagement tools, is likely to receive attention because it offers higher-value subscriptions than the classroom base.

For the founders and early backers, the ownership arc is a cautionary tale about timing. Investors who came in during the SoftBank round or the 2021 listing saw the valuation rise toward $6 billion and then fall to the $1.7 billion take-private level. The people who own Kahoot! today bought it at a large discount to that peak, a gap that any intrinsic value estimate of the business would have flagged, and precisely the opportunity that made the private deal attractive.

Kahoot! is owned by a private consortium led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, alongside General Atlantic, KIRKBI (the Lego family's investment company), Glitrafjord, Datter Holding, and management shareholders. The group took the company private in January 2024.

No. Kahoot! was listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange under the ticker KAHOT and traded via a US ADR program, but it was delisted on January 23, 2024, after the Goldman Sachs-led consortium acquired it. It is now a private company.

Kahoot! was founded in 2012 by Johan Brand, Jamie Brooker, and Morten Versvik, building on a research project at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology with Professor Alf Inge Wang. Entrepreneur Åsmund Furuseth joined early and served as an early CEO.

Eilert Hanoa is the CEO. He is a Norwegian entrepreneur who became a major shareholder and executive, and his investment vehicle Glitrafjord is part of the consortium that now owns the company.

The take-private valued Kahoot!'s equity at NOK 17.2 billion, roughly $1.7 billion, at an all-cash price of NOK 35.00 per share. That was well below the company's 2021 peak market value, which approached $6 billion.

Yes. Both Microsoft and The Walt Disney Company held strategic stakes in Kahoot! during its growth years, and SoftBank invested $215 million in 2020. These investors exited or were bought out through the public listing and the eventual take-private.