China-based online tutoring service VIPKid raised $500m in series D+ funding today from a consortium co-led by internet group Tencent.
Tencent co-led the round with Coatue Management, Sequoia Capital and Yunfeng Capital, and it valued VIPKid at RMB20bn ($3.1bn) according to local media.
Founded in 2013, VIPKid operates a platform that offers real-time, one-to-one English tutoring. It employs more than 40,000 teachers from North America and has attracted more than 300,000 students across 35 countries to date.
The funding will enable the company to add more educational content including online textbooks, introduce additional tools and services for teachers and develop machine learning technologies that can drive future products.
VIPKid had previously closed a $200m series D round in August 2017 led by Sequoia, with participation from Tencent, Yunfeng, Matrix Partners China and Sinovation Ventures at a $1.5bn valuation.
Sequoia and Yunfeng had co-led VIPKid’s $100m series C round in 2016, shortly before Bryant Stibel Investments invested an undisclosed amount in the company.
Matrix Partners, Sequoia, Learn Capital, Northern Light Venture Capital and Innovation Works provided series A and B funding for VIPKid in 2014 and 2015, though precise figures for the rounds have not been revealed.
Lin Haifeng, managing partner at Tencent Investment, a corporate venture capital subsidiary of Tencent, said: “Tencent attaches great importance to investment in online education.
“We hope to have close cooperation with our most important partners like VIPKid and to help the Chinese education industry explore the global market and the boundaries and possibilities of education.”