Duolingo Wall Street debut raises shares prices and its valuation is already close to 5,500 million euros - The closures of schools and institutes around the world due to the coronavirus pandemic has strongly boosted the educational technology applications sector and Duolingo is the latest exponent of this trend.

The technological startup of the education sector Duolingo has started with force its journey in the stock market. The language learning application began trading on the Nasdaq on Wednesday with a rise in the value of its shares that has reached peaks of around 40% today.

The edtech has reached with its first steps in Wall Street an overall valuation of 6,500 million dollars (about 5,475 million euros) after reaching a maximum price per share of 141.4 dollars and ending the first session at 139.01 dollars.

Duolingo Wall Street debut raises shares prices

These figures are well above the price of the initial public offering (IPO), which was subscribed by entities such as Goldman Sachs & Co and Allen & Company. So, the valuation was $ 102 per share. Previous estimates quantified their shares in ranges between $ 85 and $ 95.

Thanks to the IPO, Duolingo has managed to raise almost $ 521 million with the sale of 5.1 million shares, of which 1.4 were sold by existing shareholders, so the profits will not go to the company.

Speaking to Reuters, Luis von Ahn, CEO and co-founder of Duolingo, along with Severin Hacker, said that "being a publicly traded company will allow us to operate at a higher level and move from the minor leagues to the major leagues".

Duolingo Wall Street debut raises shares prices

Von Ahn added that after its IPO, the US company will focus on improving the app and getting the most active users to switch to paid programs.

Founded in 2011, Duolingo offers courses in 40 languages, including Spanish and Catalan, and has about 40 million monthly active users, according to data from the company.

The largest market for Duolingo is the United States, which concentrates approximately 20% of its users and reports 45% of its revenue. However, currently the region where it is experiencing the greatest growth is Asia, where the company has expansion plans.

The progression of Duolingo has been brilliant since the entry into its capital of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, which invested at the end of 2019 about 29 million euros, with which it reached a valuation of 1,500 million. In just a year and a half, Duolingo has managed to multiply its value by 4, in more than 5,000 million euros.

Duolingo Wall Street debut raises shares prices

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The interprofessional minimum wage will rise again in 2021: this is the current SMI and its possible increase in the coming months

The minimum interprofessional wage (SMI) could be increased again in 2021, after it has remained frozen for months after the last increase that was approved in 2020.

This was pointed out by the Minister of Economic Affairs, Nadia Calviño, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers. Calviño has advanced that in the next month of September the Government will establish "if it is possible to recover the path of the increase of the interprofessional minimum wage" and "agree an increase for the final months of this year".

It should be remembered that the current minimum wage is 950 euros per month divided into 14 payments. In recent years the improvements in this regard have been constant, since in 2018 the SMI was 750 euros per month, while in 2020 it was already fixed at 950 euros.

However, the coronavirus pandemic forced the next planned increases to stop, and now that the economy is beginning to recover, the government is looking for the best time to implement the next increase.

The amount or percentage by which the minimum wage will be raised is not yet clear and will be discussed. The Committee of Experts proposes to increase it by 1.3% to 2% for the remainder of 2021 in order to comply with the recommendations of the European Union. This improvement would mean that the SMI would grow between 12 and 19 euros per month.

That is, if the Government is guided by the advice of the Committee of Experts, the SMI should be between 962 and 969 euros before the end of 2021.

In addition, the report presented by the 12 specialists who are part of this committee proposes that between 2021 and 2023 the minimum wage increases between 6.4% and 10.4%, from the 950 euros currently charged to 1,011 euros and 1,049 euros. The aim is to bring it to 60% of the average wage before the end of the term.

The second vice-president and minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, recalled on Monday, the importance of achieving this increase, and said that his vision is clear and matches the raised by the committee of experts" as to establish an increase of between 12 and 19 euros in 2021.

In fact, just a few weeks ago Díaz was in favor of applying the minimum wage increase as early as August, although it does not seem that this will finally happen at such an early date.

Yolanda Díaz also said that with the CPI at 2.7% workers are not in a good situation:"It is not that the SMI is freezing the workers who need it most, who are out of agreement, but that right now they are losing purchasing power in their homes."