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babbel

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Babbel is a comprehensive system that combines effective language learning methods with state-of-the-art technology.

Designed by a team of software experts and language-instruction professionals at the Berlin-based company Lesson Nine, Babbel provides an intuitive approach to learning via cutting- edge applications, audio cues and user-generated visuals. It also enables users around the globe to connect with and learn from each other.

With courses in German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Portuguese Babbel blends social networking with vocabulary-developing and sentence-building tools. Babbel’s system manages the content for review until the material has been mastered; game-like multimedia “trainers” offer exercise applications that last about 2-5 minutes

Developed as a Rich Internet Application (RIA) with Adobe’s Flex framework for Flash and Ruby on Rails, Babbel is operationally robust and highly intuitive.

Lesson Nine founders Thomas Holl and Toine Diepstraten have many years of application development, IT management, community cultivation and interactive media experience. The other two founders, Lorenz Heine, was a co-founder and CFO of Native Instruments, and has extensive entrepreneurial experience in the software industry, while Markus Witte has online marketing and management experience, and a solid academic grounding in language, cultural theory and media. Head of Content Production Miriam Plieninger is an experienced expert and holds a Master’s degrees in language instruction.

Babbel is available as a <a href="http://www.babbel.com">website</a> , as an <a href="http://www.babbel.com/home/babbel-mobile">iPhone App</a> and as a <a href="http://www.babbel.com/home/babbel-refresh">Desktop Client for download</a>.

Milestones

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• 
  babbel added Toine Diepstraten as R&D, IT Manager.
  Posted 7/11/08 at 8:23am
• 
  babbel added Thomas Holl as Technical Director.
  Posted 7/11/08 at 8:23am
• 
  babbel added Lorenz Heine as Managing Director.
  Posted 7/11/08 at 8:23am
• 
  babbel added Markus Witte as Managing Director.
  Posted 7/11/08 at 8:23am
• 
  babbel received in Unattributed funding. (11/6/08)
  Posted 11/7/08 at 3:43pm via techcrunch.com
• 
  babbel acquired FriendsAbroad. (11/6/08)
  Posted 11/7/08 at 3:45pm via techcrunch.com
• 
  babbel — Babbel sees first positive cashflow. Apps for iPhone and Desktop released. (4/19/10)
  Posted 4/19/10 at 3:16am via techcrunch.com
• 
  babbel — Release of Babbel 2.0 (11/10/09)
  Posted 4/19/10 at 3:14am via techcrunch.com
• 
  babbel — Babbel launches first payed service - A spanish course for speakers of German (4/6/09)
  Posted 4/14/09 at 11:57pm via techcrunch.com
• 
  babbel — Babbel acquires FriendsAbroad.com (11/6/08)
  Posted 4/14/09 at 11:55pm via techcrunch.com
• 
  babbel — VC Funding Series A (7/29/08)
  Posted 4/14/09 at 11:54pm via techcrunch.com
• 
  babbel — Public Beta Launch (1/14/08)
  Posted 7/11/08 at 8:26am via techcrunch.com

Videos

Screenshots

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Above: babbel Screenshot -- #1
Uploaded: 6/3/09

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Sources

1. Babbel acquires FriendsAbroad in cash deal (uk.techcrunch.com) [edit]
2. Babbel acquires FriendsAbroad in cash deal (uk.techcrunch.com) [edit]
3. Babbel: Help Me, Help You Learn A New Language (techcrunch.com) [edit]
4. Babbel secures funding for language learning (uk.techcrunch.com) [edit]
5. Babbel acquires FriendsAbroad in cash deal (uk.techcrunch.com) [edit]
6. When Startups monetize! Babbel starts first paid services (techcrunch.com) [edit]
7. Babbel turns a profit after dumping freemium model (eu.techcrunch.com) [edit]
8. Babbel turns a profit after dumping freemium model (eu.techcrunch.com) [edit]