Chinese consortium, Benchmark in $70m US education play

The investment - worth $70 million - represents a Series B round of funding for the business, known as the Minerva Project. Founded in 2012, it claims to have reinvented the university experience through the introduction of innovative curricula and technology-enabled education solutions.

TAL will contribute $18 million, leading a Chinese consortium that is putting in $25 million. The remainder will come from Zhenfund - a seed vehicle created by Xiaoping Xu and Qiang Wang, co-founders of US-listed New Oriental Education & Technology Group, with support from Sequoia Capital - and Yongjin, an investment group that targets financial services, healthcare and education.

Benchmark was the sole investor in Minerva's Series A round of funding in 2012. Kevin Harvey, a general partner at the VC firm, will join the Minerva board alongside a representative from TAL.

The company has created a network of schools in an alliance with the Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences, which is a member of the Claremont University consortium. It accepted its first class 29 students - seven of whom are from China - last month.

Minerva claims to emphasize the development of key "habits of the mind and foundational concepts" rather than knowledge dissemination. Most classes are small, online and run in a seminar-style. The cost of tuition is also said to be approximately 25% of most highly selective, private US-based universities.

"In the past year alone TAL had over one million enrollments in our enrichment programs and every year the brightest of our high school seniors will receive offers to attend the top universities in China. We hope that our strategic investment into, and the long-term relationship we are building with Minerva will help top Chinese students seek opportunities to experience the innovative Minerva learning project in the near future," Bangxin Zhang, chairman and CEO of TAL, said in a statement.

Founded in 2003, TAL provides after-school tutoring services to students in China from pre-school age through 12th grade. Classes are conducted in small groups, as personalized premium services, or online. The company had a network of 285 learning centers as of May 2014.

Net income for the 12 months ended February 2014 came to $60.6 million, up from $37.5 million the previous year. Revenue rose from $225.9 million to $313.9 million over the same period.

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• Topics
• Consumer
• North America
• Greater China
• Venture
• Venture
• China
• Benchmark Capital
• USA
• Education
• ZhenFund