Sebastian Somen

Sebastian Somen is the current Vice President of Finance at Duolingo. Prior to joining Duolingo, Sebastian served as the Vice President of Strategic Projects at Magic Leap from February 2016 to February 2020.

Sebastian originally joined Magic Leap as a senior member of the business development team. Their key focus was on negotiation of critical partnerships for the Magic Leap One launch, including with the NBA, Unity and Enjoy. Sebastian also completed multiple M&A transactions as part of the corporate development team.

In their role as Vice President of Strategic Projects, Sebastian was responsible for critical strategic and corporate initiatives, involving the company’s key strategic partners. This included leading enterprise engagements as the business operations lead, working cross-functionally with product, sales, and marketing executive leadership and their teams to secure and execute such engagements on budget and on time. Sebastian also directly supported the CFO, CEO, and COO on capital raises that resulted in over a billion dollars in financing, as well as incubating multiple key mid-to-long term company initiatives, including the enterprise business formation in partnership with the Boston Consulting Group. In addition, Sebastian provided support to the CEO for high profile engagements with investors, strategic partners, customers, and board of directors, often accompanying him in key meetings.

Sebastian’s extensive experience in finance and strategic partnerships has been integral to Duolingo’s success in scaling and growing its business.

Sebastian Somen is a finance and mathematics major at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business.

Their manager is Matt Skaruppa, CFO. They are on a team with and Denis Meinert - Controller.