NetEase Youdao, an online education platform spun out by China-based internet company NetEase, has raised an undisclosed sum from investors including Legend Capital, the venture capital firm formed by conglomerate Legend Holdings.
Mooc-CN Investment, an online education service owned by Tsinghua University’s asset management arm Tsinghua Holdings, led the round, which valued Youdao at $1.1bn.
Youdao operates an education platform that includes tools like a dictionary, online courses and a translator. The company also produces smart hardware products, such as a two-way multilingual voice translation device called Translator Egg.
The capital will enable Youdao to further invest in research and development activities for educational technologies, and to generate additional content for its courses. It claims to have attracted more than 800 million users to date.
Mooc-CN Investment will collaborate with Youdao on projects that leverage the resources of Tsinghua University and the Chinese Ministry of Education’s Research Centre for Online Education.
Rui Chen, general manager of Legend Capital, said: “Legend Capital has long been focusing on the development of the education industry.
“As a leading brand in online education, NetEase Youdao has provided users with a wide range of top-class products, which have significantly helped the sharing of quality education resources and improved users’ learning efficiently.
“With a grand vision and outstanding capacities in technology and product development, the management team of Youdao is bound to lead the firm to greater accomplishments in the future.”
NetEase had previously spun out music streaming service Cloud Music, which raised $109m in an April 2017 round led by media group Shanghai Media, and Weiyang, a pig farming business that secured $23m in a series A round co-led by corporates Meituan-Dianping and JD.com the following month.