Asian GPs join $41m round for Wonder Workshop
Wonder Workshop, a US-based education robot maker with a strong presence in China, has raised a $41 million Series C round from a group of investors including Tencent Holdings, MindWorks Ventures and Softbank Korea.
Additional backing came from Madrona Venture Group, TAL Education Group and VTRON Group. Existing investors TCL Capital, Sinovation Ventures, Bright Success, WI Harper and CRV also participated.
The capital is expected to advance both software and hardware development programs as well as an ongoing marketing drive targeting education institutions looking to enhance their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) curricula. This effort will include an allocation for market infrastructure.
"We are glad to be Wonder Workshop's investor and partner to bring STEM education into the core subjects of schools across Hong Kong and Asia," David Chang, a partner at MindWorks, said in a statement. "Wonder Workshop's educational coding robot is already a proven system deployed across 17,000 classrooms in the United States."
Founded in 2012, Wonder Workshop now sells its products in more than 30 countries worldwide and claims to have robots in use in some 12,000 schools. Its flagship products, Dot and Dash, are marketed as children's STEM education tools that are fun for both girls and boys.
The company raised a $20 million Series B last year to support its expansion in China after establishing a distribution partnership in the country with JD.com. The round was led by WI Harper and Ideal Bulb Ventures, the US affiliate of Taiwan and China-based Innovation Works. Other investors in the company include Learn Capital and Charles River Ventures.
China's educational hardware space is expected to see more investment activity as an increasing economic dependence on technology prompts schools and parents to emphasize STEM education. Recent activity in this space includes a $30 million Series B for educational robotics kit producer Makeblock led by Evolution Media China and Shenzhen Capital.
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