Prototypes and development The game concept used in Kahoot! originated in a series of prototypes called "
Lecture Quiz" that were developed by Alf Inge Wang at
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in 2006. Lecture Quiz 1.0 was developed in 2006. The server was implemented in
Java and
MySQL, integrated with an
Apache Web server. The teacher client was implemented as a
Java application, in combination with
OpenGL for
graphics, while the student clients were implemented on
Java 2 Micro Edition. This made it possible to run the client on both mobile phones and laptops. Lecture Quiz 2.0, developed in 2011, was the first prototype where both teacher and student clients had
web-interfaces. The last version of Lecture Quiz was version 3.0 in 2012, with improved user-interface implemented using
HTML 5 and
CSS3, avatars, and multiple game/team modes.
Company history Kahoot! was founded in 2012 by Morten Versvik, one of Wang's students. Johan Brand, Jamie Brooker and Asmund Furuseth later joined the company as cofounders to develop its user interface and design. A
beta version of the platform was launched in September 2013. In March 2017, Kahoot! reached one billion cumulative participating players. In September 2017, Kahoot! launched a mobile application for homework. In 2019, Kahoot! acquired the Scandinavian education company Poio. It also acquired
DragonBox, an educational games developer, for $18 million. In 2020, Kahoot! was valued at $1.5 billion and achieved
unicorn status. As of 2021, the company was valued at USD$7 billion. In 2020 they acquired
Drops, which was focused on teaching languages, for $50 million. This was followed by Whiteboard.fi, which develops software for digital, online whiteboards. Kahoot! also acquired the Danish startup Actimo, which developed employee training software, for $33 million. In March 2021, the company went public on the Oslo stock exchange. In April 2021, Kahoot! acquired Motimate, a corporate learning company based in Norway, for $25 million. In 2021, Kahoot! announced that it would acquire
SSO digital learning platform Clever, Inc. for $500 million. In 2023, Kahoot was acquired by a group of investors including
Goldman Sachs Asset Management for $1.72 billion in cash. == Research ==