Memrise was built off the experiences co-founder and neuroscientist Greg Detre had with the pschological spacing effect, which British entrepreneur Ed Cooke used as the basis for how users learn various languages on the app.
Before Memrise, Cooke had been awarded the Grand Master of Memory title by the International Association of Memory and Detre was specialising in memory at Princeton University.
Memrise uses flashcards, often with videos provided by members of the community saying the words. The word or phrase will then be spaced out as the user learns more words and then brought back in at a later date, which is a way to enable faster memorisation.
At the start, Memrise was heavily focused on the web app, which led to a large community growing out of it creating their own courses on specific languages. There are hundreds of courses available on the web app, some cover other topics such as history, geography and trivia.
On the mobile app, the Memrise experience is more straightforward. 20 languages are available to learn and users need to subscribe to be able to complete the full course and receive additional features, such as offline viewing.
Memrise has seen a gradual increase in mobile users, with a surge in interest following its award for Google App of the Year in 2017.
It hasn’t all been easy sailing however, with Memrise’s community going against the company’s decision to launch Decks, a separate app for user created content. After much criticism of the decision on the forums and Reddit, it decided to reverse course.
We have collected data and statistics on Memrise. Read on below to find out more. Want expert insights on this app sector? Check out the education app report.
Memrise Key Statistics
- Memrise made an estimated $13.3 million revenue in 2024, its third annual decline in revenues
- Memrise has 72 million registered users
- It has raised $21.8 million, with its latest round in June 2018 (Crunchbase)
Education App Report 2025
Want to learn more about the education app industry? Our Education App Report covers financials, market share, users, installs, demographics and benchmarking data.
- Charts: 86
- Data Points: 1583
- Apps covered: 20
Memrise Overview
| Title | Title 2 |
|---|---|
| Launch date | September 2010 |
| HQ | London, UK |
| People | Steve Toy (CEO), Ben Whately (co-founder, CSO) |
| Business type | Private |
| Industry | Language learning |
Memrise Revenue
We estimate that Memrise made $13.3 million revenue in 2024, mostly from its premium subscription service.
Memrise revenue 2017 to 2024 ($mm)
| Year | Revenue ($mm) |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 6.3 |
| 2018 | 11.4 |
| 2019 | 16.3 |
| 2020 | 22.8 |
| 2021 | 24.5 |
| 2022 | 21.5 |
| 2023 | 18.5 |
| 2024 | 13.3 |
Sources: Education App Report, Company data
Memrise Registered Users
Memrise had 72 million registered users as of 2024, with an increase of 30 million over the past six years.
Memrise registered users 2017 to 2024 (mm)
| Year | Users (mm) |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 35 |
| 2018 | 40 |
| 2019 | 45 |
| 2020 | 55 |
| 2021 | 60 |
| 2022 | 65 |
| 2023 | 70 |
| 2024 | 72 |
Sources: Education App Report, Company data
Education App Market Landscape
The education app market contains a lot of subsectors, spanning every age range. Memrise has built out an a decent sized audience for its language learning app. You can download this map as a PDF, which includes a landscape version for presentations.
Language Learning App Downloads
Language learning apps were downloaded over 300 million times in 2024, a new peak for the industry.
Language learning app downloads 2018 to 2024 (mm)
Want to learn more? Check out our Education App report.
Memrise FAQ
How many language courses does Memrise offer?
Memrise has 20 languages available and courses specifically for different dialects, such as Mexican Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese
How many user generated courses are available?
There are over 200 user generated courses available on Memrise
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