History of Kahoot

History of Kahoot: From Classroom Experiment to Global Learning Platform

This paper presents a detailed analysis of the history and evolution of Kahoot, a game-based learning platform. It traces the platform’s development from its academic origins in 2006 to its status as a global tool used by hundreds of millions. The research is based on authoritative sources, including Kahoot’s official corporate communications, press releases, reputable news outlets, and academic references. The findings detail a journey from a university research project to a viral educational tool, followed by strategic expansion into corporate and home markets, significant acquisitions, and a recent shift in ownership. This evolution highlights Kahoot’s role in popularizing gamified, social learning, and its adaptation to diverse educational and engagement needs worldwide.

Introduction

Kahoot is a Norwegian online game-based learning platform that has revolutionized engagement in classrooms, corporate training rooms, and social gatherings. At its core, Kahoot allows users to create and host multiple-choice quizzes, known as “kahoots,” which participants join via a shared screen and personal devices, turning learning into a competitive and social game. Understanding the history of Kahoot is crucial in the EdTech landscape as it exemplifies how a simple, user-centric idea rooted in academic research can achieve viral, global adoption. Its journey mirrors broader trends in digital learning, including the shift towards interactive content, the importance of platform accessibility, and the expansion of gamification beyond education. This paper will explore Kahoot’s founding, key product milestones, strategic business shifts, and its current multifaceted position in the global market.

The Etymology and Meaning of “Kahoot”

The name “Kahoot” is a modern play on the English idiom “in cahoots,” a term historically associated with secretive partnerships or conspiracies, with linguistic roots tracing back to the French word cahute (a small cabin or hut). This origin evokes an image of a group huddled together in close collaboration. The platform’s branding ingeniously rehabilitates this concept, stripping away its potentially negative connotations and reframing it to represent positive, open collaboration.

In an educational context, “Kahoot” semantically rebrands this idea of being “in cahoots” to signify interactive and social learning. It transforms the act of conspiring into one of co-constructing knowledge, perfectly aligning with sociocultural learning theories that emphasize how group interaction drives cognitive development. The name itself, therefore, acts as a concise mission statement for turning passive learning into an engaging, collective experience.

Methodology

The facts presented in this paper were gathered and verified according to strict criteria to ensure accuracy and prevent “hallucination” or invention of details. The primary sources were official Kahoot publications, including the company’s “About” page, corporate blog posts (such as the 10th anniversary retrospective), and investor relations communications. These were prioritized for information on company history, mission, features, and internal metrics.

Secondary sources included reputable news and industry outlets like TechCrunch, Reuters, and VentureBeat, which were used to confirm major business events such as acquisitions, funding rounds, and financial valuations. The Wikipedia entry for Kahoot was consulted as a consolidated timeline, but was cross-referenced with other sources for key dates and figures. Information regarding the platform’s operational status was taken from Kahoot’s official status page.

When multiple sources contained conflicting information, precedence was given to the official Kahoot source or the most recent reputable report. Any claim that could not be confirmed by at least one reliable public source has been omitted. All financial figures, user statistics, and feature release dates are cited directly from these verified sources.

Origin and Founding of Kahoot

The origins of Kahoot are deeply academic, beginning not with a company but with a research project. Professor Alf Inge Wang developed the foundational technology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). Starting in 2006, Wang created a series of prototypes called “Lecture Quiz,” which explored the use of game-based interaction to enhance student engagement during lectures.

The company itself was founded in 2012 by Morten Versvik, Johan Brand, and Jamie Brooker. Versvik, then a student of Professor Wang’s, had based his Master’s thesis on this interactive game concept. He later teamed up with Brand and Brooker, who focused on user interface and design, to develop the idea into a commercial product. Entrepreneur Åsmund Furuseth also joined the founding team. Their early purpose was to transform the Lecture Quiz prototype into a universally accessible, web-based platform that made creating and playing social learning games simple for anyone

Product Evolution Timeline

The following table outlines the key milestones in Kahoot’s development from its research origins to its current status as a comprehensive learning platform

Kahoot Product Evolution and Business Timeline

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Key Milestones & Turning Points

Classroom Adoption and Viral Growth

Kahoot’s initial and most defining growth was organic and viral within the global education community. It’s simple, free-to-play model for teachers and students removed barriers to adoption. The social, game-like experience – featuring a shared screen, catchy music, a points leaderboard, and anonymous player nicknames – proved instantly engaging. This led to an exponential word-of-mouth spread among educators. A major turning point was reaching 1 billion cumulative participants in March 2017, proving it was more than a fleeting trend. By 2018, it was reported that Kahoot was used by 50% of all U.S. K-12 students. This deep penetration in schools created a generational familiarity with the brand.

Platform Expansion: Mobile, Self-Paced, and Remote Learning

The company systematically expanded the platform beyond its live, in-person quiz format. The 2017 launch of a mobile app for homework allowed teachers to assign Kahoots for students to complete independently. This “challenge” mode was crucial for extending learning outside the classroom. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 acted as a massive accelerator for this remote, self-paced functionality. With schools and businesses shifting online, Kahoot’s tools for live virtual sessions and asynchronous assignments became essential. The platform further integrated with major software like Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom to fit seamlessly into new digital workflows.

Business Model Evolution: Freemium and Diversified Plans

Kahoot operates on a freemium business model, which was fundamental to its growth. The core experience of playing a Kahoot remains free, which drives massive user acquisition. Revenue is generated by selling premium subscriptions that offer enhanced capabilities:

  • For Schools: Tiered plans (Pro, Premium, Premium+, EDU) that increase player limits, add advanced question types (puzzle, poll, slider), provide detailed reports, and offer school-wide administration tools.
  • For Businesses: Kahoot! 360 suite offers plans for training, presentations, and large-scale events, featuring branding, advanced analytics, and team collaboration tools.
  • Licensing & Marketplace: The Kahoot! Publisher program licenses the platform to third-party content creators. The Kahoot! Marketplace allows educators and brands to sell their high-quality learning content directly on the platform.

Strategic Acquisitions and Becoming a “Group”

A major pillar of Kahoot’s strategy has been growth through acquisition, transforming it from a single quiz app into “The Kahoot! Group”. Key acquisitions include:

  • DragonBox (2019) and Poio (2019): Added award-winning, pedagogically strong math and reading apps for children.
  • Drops (2020): Brought in a popular visual language learning app.
  • Actimo (2020) and Motimate (2021): Strengthened the corporate offering with specialized employee engagement and frontline worker training platforms.
  • Clever (2021): A landmark $500 million acquisition. Clever is a central digital learning platform for U.S. K-12 schools, giving Kahoot deep infrastructure integration and a vast institutional user base.

Current Situation of Kahoot

As of its acquisition in January 2024, Kahoot is owned by a consortium of investors including Goldman Sachs Asset Management, General Atlantic, KIRKBI (the LEGO holding company), and the Kahoot team. The company is now private.

Its product positioning is as a comprehensive “global learning and engagement platform” serving three primary audiences:

  1. Schools & Higher Education: Used by over 8 million educators and in 97% of the world’s top 500 universities.
  2. Workplaces: Used by 97% of Fortune 500 companies for training, presentations, and events.
  3. Homes & Families: Offered through the Kahoot! Kids app and family subscription plans for social learning and gameplay.

The main platform modules include the flagship Kahoot! quiz platform, the integrated corporate solutions (Kahoot! 360, Actimo, Motimate), the Kahoot! Kids ecosystem (with DragonBox and Poio apps), the Clever digital learning platform, and the Whiteboard.fi tool. The platform is available via web browser and has native apps for iOS and Android devices.

a girl is holding kahoot award

How Kahoot Is Used Today

Kahoot’s applications have diversified significantly from its classroom quiz roots.

  • For Teachers:
    • Conducting formative assessments with real-time feedback on student understanding.
    • Introducing new topics with a pre-lesson quiz to gauge prior knowledge.
    • Assigning self-paced “challenges” as review homework or for differentiated learning.
    • Creating student-led projects where learners build their own Kahoots to demonstrate mastery.
  • For Students:
    • Engaging in live, competitive review sessions in class.
    • Studying independently using self-paced modes or browsing millions of public Kahoots on various subjects.
    • Developing presentation and content-creation skills by building Kahoots for their peers.
  • For Corporate Training:
    • Onboarding new employees with interactive quizzes on company policies.
    • Making compliance or safety training more engaging and memorable.
    • Breaking the ice and building team energy during meetings or conferences.
    • Conducting product knowledge or sales training with competitive leaderboards to motivate teams.
  • For Events:
    • Hosting large-scale trivia sessions at company all-hands meetings or industry conferences.
    • Adding an interactive poll or Q&A element to virtual webinars.
    • Facilitating family trivia nights or social gatherings in an informal setting.

Strengths, Limitations, and Criticisms

Like any widely adopted technology, Kahoot has documented strengths and acknowledged limitations.

Its core strengths are its proven engagement model, ease of use, and flexibility across contexts and devices. Its freemium model provides high accessibility, and its massive library of user-generated content is a significant network effect.

Key limitations and criticisms noted in discourse include:

  • Internet Dependency: A stable internet connection is required for both hosts and players, which can be a barrier in low-connectivity areas.
  • Surface-Level Assessment: While excellent for quick checks and review, the multiple-choice format can limit deeper assessment of complex understanding or critical thinking skills.
  • Focus on Speed: The points system rewarding fast answers can advantage quick thinkers over deep thinkers, potentially creating anxiety for some learners.
  • Privacy and Data Safety: As an EdTech company handling data from minors, Kahoot is subject to stringent regulations like GDPR and COPPA. The company addresses this through clear privacy policies and, with the Clever acquisition, offers secure, rostered logins for schools.
  • Accessibility: While Kahoot has added features like Read Aloud and supports multiple languages to be more inclusive, ensuring full accessibility for users with diverse disabilities remains an ongoing challenge for digital platforms.

Conclusion

The history of Kahoot demonstrates a remarkable evolution from a niche academic prototype to a cornerstone of modern interactive learning. Its journey from the “Lecture Quiz” experiments at NTNU to a platform with over 12 billion cumulative participants underscores the universal appeal of its core proposition: making learning social, playful, and engaging. Key to its success was its viral adoption in education, followed by strategic decisions to support self-paced learning, aggressively expand into the corporate sector, and grow through targeted acquisitions. The recent shift to private ownership marks a new chapter.

Kahoot’s story matters in EdTech because it exemplifies how a simple, well-executed idea focused on user experience can achieve global scale. It helped mainstream gamification in education and demonstrated that tools could successfully bridge the gap between school, work, and home. While facing competition and the constant need for innovation, Kahoot’s established brand, vast content library, and diversified platform position it to continue playing a significant role in how people learn and connect.

Sources & References

Official Kahoot Sources

News & Industry Reports

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