Online language tools lure German venture firms

Babbel, a free site and social network for learning French or Spanish, on Monday said it raised a first round of financing from the Germany-based venture firms Kizoo and VC Fonds.

Babbel's parent company, Lesson Nine, which is also based in Germany, launched the site in January with tutorials, audio, and visual tools to help people learn as many as five languages. The site also offers a community so that a newbie member could find a learning partner. With the money, Lesson Nine plans to expand the site with new grammar lessons for basic to intermediate levels.

The company did not disclose how much money it raised, but according to a source familiar with the deal, it was in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Lesson Nine was established in August 2007 with funds from its four founders, Lorenz Heine, Thomas Holl, Toine Diepstraten, and Markus Witte.

[mkwi]

Online language learning is a strong trend in the moment and I think we're just at the beginning. We're very happy that we could convince two major investors with a lot of experience. Especially the Kizoo management team has played key roles in the german internet scene for more than ten years. Those guys certainly know their way around and their first step into the VC business is Babbel.com. VC Fonds Berlin has been around for quite a time and they have a very good track record. And believe it or not: it's fun to work with them.

For our part, we are busy now to expand our service and find extra staff to help us making Babbel.com into something really big.

Markus Witte, MD of Lesson Nine
http://www.babbel.com