Yesterday, Duolingo announced two updates — preliminary Q4 2025 results and CFO Matt Skaruppa’s resignation after six years.
Skaruppa, who led the company through its 2021 IPO and its shift to profitability, will transition to an advisory role. Replacing him effective February 23, 2026, is Gillian Munson, a Duolingo board member and Chair of the Audit, Risk, and Compliance Committee. She previously served as CFO at Vimeo, Iora Health, and other companies.
After the announcement, Duolingo’s stock dropped ~8%.
Strong DAUs, Weak Growth Rate
Duolingo’s DAUs grew 30%, which brings the number to 52.7 million. While it’s growing, the growth rate is declining, adding another fall to a sequential decline that began in Q3 2024.
In terms of quarter-on-quarter growth, the growth rate was just 4%, down from 6% in 2025. Quarterly DAU growth has been inconsistent this year. Q1 began with a 15% QoQ growth (which could be due to the ‘Dead Duo’ campaign), but Q4 ended with just 4% growth.
The reasons for lower growth this year could be:
- CEO Luis von Ahn’s statement on making Duolingo AI-first (led to community backlash and users deleting the app)
- The aggressive ads after every lesson
- The transition to Energy (the company claimed it increased DAUs, but the quarterly growth rate fell to 2% in Q2 2025 from 15%)
The company has been trying to scale the DAU growth-rate. In the Q3 2025 earnings call, Ahn mentioned they paused unhinged posts to build brand love. But he realized that was impacting DAUs, and the company resumed them. In January 2026, the platform started offering the ‘Explain My Answer’ feature to free users (this was under the Max subscription, Duolingo’s most premium tier).
Bookings Growth & the Discount Effect
Duolingo announced that bookings are beyond the high end of the previous guidance — $329.5 million – $335.5 million.
Total bookings are at an all-time high, but again, growth rate has been declining since Q2 2025.
The current quarterly boost in Q4 could be due to Duolingo’s year-end holiday discount. Since 2023, total booking numbers show the same pattern — strong quarterly growth in fourth quarters.
Duolingo’s numbers are growing, but the rate might have concerned investors.
CFO Skaruppa’s exit along with the decline in growth rate could have affected the stock yesterday, which went down ~8.5% and is currently trading at ~50% lower than its price last year.
The post Duolingo Announces CFO Resignation with Preliminary Q4 2024 Results, Stock Falls 8% appeared first on The Report by Class Central.
​Â
