China Online Education Group, a China-based education services provider backed by online gaming network Duowan Entertainment, filed for a $100m initial public offering in the US on Thursday.
The company runs an online education platform called 51Talk that caters to the Chinese market, and which specialises in English language learning. Users can receive one-to-one lessons from foreign tutors through their computers or mobile devices, and access learning material.
China Online Education made a $15.4m loss from revenues of $11.2m over the first three months of 2016, following a $50.4m loss in 2015 from revenues of $23.9m.
The planned IPO follows approximately $58m in venture funding, according to the IPO filing. Duowan and venture capital firms DCM and Shunwei Capital supplied $7.7m in series B funding in 2013, before Sequoia Capital joined the three for a $28.2m series C round the following year.
Duowan also participated in a $20m series D round in August 2015 that included DCM, Shunwei, Sequoia, Engage Capital Partners and Huaxing Capital Partners.
China Online Education formed a five-year partnership agreement with Duowan in 2014 that enables it to make use of audio and video streaming software, technical support services, servers and internet bandwidth capacity provided by Douwan’s social network platform, YY.
Douwan holds a 10.4% share of the company, DCM 24.1%, Dasheng International 24%, Sequoia Capital 19.3% and Shunwei Capital 15.3%.
Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) are serving as underwriters for the offering.