China's VIPKid raises $500m round

The investment, billed as a Series D+ round, is said to be the largest funding round raised in the education technology sector globally to date, representing one-third of the $1.5 billion raised in China’s children’s education space so far this year. It extends a $200 million Series D round led by Sequoia last year with participation from Tencent, Yunfeng, Matrix Partners China, and ZhenFund.

Founded in 2013 and launched the following year, VIPKid offers real-time one-to-one English immersion learning programs through a platform that connects some 40,000 North America teachers with more than 300,000 international students, mostly in China. The fresh capital will be used to expand the content offering, grow the teacher network, and experiment with incorporating artificial intelligence.

“We believe that VIPKid is transforming the shape of traditional education on a global scale and is providing an excellent new model for future education,” Philippe Laffont, founder of Coatue, said in a statement. “Coatue is excited about VIPKid’s opportunity to integrate outstanding educational resources globally and boost its internationalization process.”

VIPKid was backed by US seed-stage investor Innovation Works as early as 2014 and raised two successive rounds with participation from Innovation, Sequoia, Matrix, and Northern Light Venture Capital. In 2016, the company received a $100 million Series C led by Yunfeng and an investment of undisclosed size from Bryant Stibel. Last year, revenue was projected to reach RMB5 billion ($759 million) in 2018.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Technology
• Consumer
• Expansion
• China
• TMT
• Education
• Sequoia Capital
• Tencent
• Yunfeng Capital