Technology
Zuoyebang: Chinese online tutor raises 750 million dollars
Zuoyebang (Reuters) Online Tutoring Group said it raised $750 million in a new round of funding led by FountainVest Partners and the Tiger Global Management investment firm on Monday, as the COVID-19 crisis spurs investment investment interest in education technology.
The Chinese company announced in a release, its e-financing cycle also attracted other investors, such as SoftBank 's vision fund, Sequoia Capital China, Xiang He Capital and the Qatar Investment Authority.
Zuoyebang has more than 50 million active daily people and over 12 million paid users, and it was founded by the search engine ghost Baidu in 2014 and spun off in 2015.
Goldman Sachs, Coatue Management and GGV Capital are currently among its investors.
In early last month, Reuters reported that the 5-year-old company was in discussions in a new financing round to raise $600-800 million, valued at $6.5 billion before investment.
Fundraising is a technology for education known as 'edtech' which was one of the few sectors in the pandemic, since the Chinese lock-down imposed on students to take online class from their homes.
Students in China are able to upload questions on their homework and look for responses on the artificial intelligence platform of Zuoyebang. Live-streaming course has been launched.
Researcher Hurun said that in 2018, the startup raised $350 million to an estimate of less than $3 billion.
Yuanfudao, Zuoyebang's main competitor in China, said it secures $1 billion in March for a new $7.8 billion round of funding.
Zuoyebang also competes with other Chinese start-up companies such as 17zuoye and Koolearn Technology.
Source: Reuters; Reporting by Julie Zhu in Hong Kong and Yingzhi Yang in Beijing; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips | Photo: zbang
