Internet group Tencent has led a $300m round for China-based online education platform developer Yuanfudao, TechCrunch reported on Wednesday, citing an announcement by the company.
Private equity firm Warburg Pincus, venture capital firm Matrix Partners China and VC group IDG Capital also participated in the round, which valued the company at more than $3bn according to a post on its WeChat account.
Yuanfudao provides app-based tutoring services that include live courses, a homework assistance service and an online repository of mock exam problems. Parents can also use the platform to track the progress of their child’s learning.
The company was spun off from social media platform Fenbi and has more than 200 million users, about 1 million of which pay. It plans to channel the funding into improving the user experience for its service while also ramping up research and development on artificial intelligence.
A report by The Information last month suggested Yuanfudao was in line to raise $350m in a round that would have included $250m from Tencent. The companies have not revealed how much the latter ended up providing.
The latest round takes Yuanfudao’s total funding to approximately $503m and comes after a $120m round in May 2017 that valued it at about $1bn. Warburg Pincus led that round while Tencent also took part.
The company secured $60m in a 2015 series D round co-led by Tencent and private equity and VC firm CMC Capital Partners that included New Horizon Capital and existing backers Matrix Partners China and IDG Capital, before Tencent added another $40m in mid-2016.
