Freerice

What Freerice does

Freerice is a non-profit educational trivia platform owned and operated by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), headquartered in Rome, Italy. Founded in October 2007 by American programmer John Breen and donated to WFP in 2009, the platform serves individual players, students, educators, and corporate partners across 135 countries, reaching 3.5 million users as of 2025. The core product is a free, web-based multiple-choice trivia game spanning vocabulary, languages, humanities, science, and math, where every correct answer triggers 10 grains of rice donated to WFP; lifetime donations exceed 225 billion grains. The underlying technology is a responsive web application (free of native mobile apps since 2021) backed by a category-organized question database with 100 to 10,000 questions per subject, a per-user rice-grain counter, and group/leaderboard infrastructure supporting groups of more than 20,000 members.

The business model is donor-funded rather than revenue-generating: Freerice explicitly retains no money, with 100% of platform-generated funds passed to WFP. The funding mechanism is private sponsor matching, in which a small set of named corporate sponsors (Citi, Liberty Mutual, BCCCC) match rice grains generated through gameplay with cash payments to WFP, receiving in return branded in-game banners and employee-engagement opportunities. Pricing is free for all users, with no advertising and no premium tier; monetization occurs entirely on the sponsor side. Distribution is product-led and community-led, relying on the trivia gameplay loop, school and corporate group competitions, volunteer content contributions, and content marketing via the Freerice Blog and Instagram/TikTok channels.

The company's strategic position rests almost entirely on its UN affiliation and the WFP brand (2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate), which commercial trivia competitors cannot replicate. Operational capacity is constrained to a 1-10 person team, and there is no public API, no disclosed AI/ML capability, and no disclosed external funding round; the platform has been stable rather than scaling aggressively, with the most material recent operational change being the 2021 discontinuation of native mobile apps to concentrate engineering on the web platform.

Name

Freerice

Legal name

Freerice (an initiative of the United Nations World Food Programme)

Website

https://freerice.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Freerice is a free, web-based educational trivia game owned by the UN World Food Programme, converting every correct answer into 10 grains of rice donated to WFP. It serves 3.5 million users across 135 countries and is funded by corporate sponsors matching in-game rice grain donations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Educational Gaming

NAICS

Educational Services (611)

akta.pro primary industry

Quiz Bowl & Academic Team Competitions (EDAMAGAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Learning Content Bundling & Subscription Passes (All-Access Libraries) (MPACALAL), Online Math Enrichment Platforms & Courses (EDAMAEAF)

Keywords

• Educational trivia game
• Charitable gaming platform
• Online learning platform
• Corporate social responsibility
• Hunger relief initiative

Headquarters

HQ city

Rome

HQ country

Italy

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Private Sponsor Matching: Private sponsors match the rice grain donations generated within Freerice, triggering financial payments to WFP. Every correct answer earns 10 grains of rice, which translates to a payment to WFP. The donations support WFP's operations worldwide where needs are greatest.
2. Corporate Sponsorship: Companies sponsor the platform for CSR visibility and employee engagement opportunities. Sponsors receive unique visibility and engagement opportunities within the platform including in-game sponsored banners with millions of daily impressions.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Freerice is a free, web-based educational trivia game where players answer multiple-choice questions across subjects such as vocabulary, languages, humanities, science, and math. Every correct answer generates 10 grains of rice donated to the UN World Food Programme (WFP), with private sponsors matching the rice grains to trigger financial payments to WFP operations.

Product overview

Freerice is a single unified product—an educational trivia game operated by the UN World Food Programme. The core offering is the Freerice Trivia Game at play.freerice.com, where players answer questions across various knowledge categories to generate rice donations. The platform includes Freerice Groups for organizing school and corporate competitions with leaderboards, plus a Blog content platform covering food security topics. Supporting resources include the Freerice Toolkit, A-Z Ebook, and downloadable certificates for participation and volunteering. The platform operates exclusively as a responsive web application, having discontinued its native mobile apps to focus on web experience enhancement.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Freerice Trivia Game An educational trivia game where players answer multiple-choice questions across various subjects; every correct answer generates 10 grains of rice donated to the UN World Food Programme to support its life-saving work around the world. Includes a Groups feature allowing schools and companies to create teams, host competitions, and track rice grain contributions through leaderboards.

Quantifiable outcome

• 3.5 million users in 2025
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and strategic.

• CiticoreGTM or Marketing PartnerCorporate sponsor engaging employees through Freerice. Citi leverages the platform for CSR initiatives and employee engagement while supporting WFP's mission. Featured on supporters page with logo placement.
• Liberty MutualcoreGTM or Marketing PartnerCorporate sponsor providing employee engagement opportunities through Freerice competitions. Supports WFP's zero hunger mission through the platform. Listed as supporter on Freerice website.
• BCCCCcoreGTM or Marketing PartnerCorporate supporter with logo featured on Freerice partners page. Extent of partnership includes funding mechanism where sponsors match rice grain donations.
• Tailored FoodstrategicStrategic or Co-development PartnerNon-profit social enterprise working to achieve Zero Hunger by 2030. Led by Taylor Quinn, Freerice's Hunger Hero. Partners with grassroots entrepreneurs and food systems organizations. Projects in 19 countries developing nutritious, affordable food.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Mentimeter: Mentimeter is an interactive presentation and polling tool used in classrooms and corporate events with quiz and competition features. It competes with Freerice Groups for school and corporate engagement use cases.
• Beedeez: Beedeez is a gamified micro-learning platform offering short, quiz-based training content for enterprises and educators. It overlaps with Freerice's trivia-based learning format and corporate group competition use case.

Broad incumbents

• Khan Academy: Khan Academy is a free, large-scale educational platform covering multiple subjects including math, science, and humanities. It serves the same schools and self-directed learners that Freerice targets, with deeper pedagogical content and broader institutional adoption.
• Duolingo: Duolingo is a global language-learning platform with gamified lessons, leaderboards, and free access. Languages are one of Freerice's trivia categories, and Duolingo serves a similar student and lifelong learner audience with a more focused, scaled offering.

Direct peers

• Quizlet: Quizlet is a learning platform with study tools, flashcards, and test/quiz modes across a wide range of subjects. It serves the same student and lifelong learner segments as Freerice and competes for educational engagement time.
• Sporcle: Sporcle is a trivia and quiz entertainment platform with thousands of user-generated quizzes across many categories. It is comparable to Freerice's trivia game mechanics and multi-subject content model, though it operates as a commercial entertainment product.
• Kahoot!: Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform offering live and self-paced trivia quizzes for schools, businesses, and individuals. It directly competes with Freerice in the educational trivia and quiz-based learning category, with stronger educator tools and a paid business model.
• Quizizz: Quizizz is a multi-subject quiz and learning platform similar to Freerice, used widely in schools and by individual learners. It offers gamified assessments, leaderboards, and competitions that closely mirror Freerice's group competition system.

Others

• ShareTheMeal: ShareTheMeal is another WFP-owned mobile app that lets users donate meals to fight hunger. It is directly comparable to Freerice as a sister WFP initiative, sharing the same parent organization, donor base, and Zero Hunger mission.
• Tailored Food: Tailored Food is a non-profit social enterprise working on Zero Hunger by 2030 and is an explicit Freerice strategic partner. It is thematically aligned to Freerice's mission and provides a real-world food systems complement to Freerice's digital donation engine.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Instagraminstagram.com/wfpfreerice
• TikToktiktok.com/@worldfoodprogramme
• Xx.com/freerice
• Facebookfacebook.com/freerice

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Freerice