Coursera partner in China secures $20M funding to make more MOOCs

Guokr, an online science community and a partner of Coursera in China, has raised US$20 million in series C funding led by Chinese edtech firm Tomorrow Advancing Life. TAL contributed US$15 million, followed by US$5 million from IDG and a handful of other investors, according to the company’s blog.

The website sees 25 million users per month who read, share, and discuss science-related topics. Members can read articles published by scientists, post on forums, and ask questions on a Quora-style question-and-answer board. It has published over 100 books spanning science, science fiction, and children’s books.

In 2012, it launched massive open online courses, or MOOCs, where members could learn more about both science and other fields. In 2013, it partnered with Coursera. Over 150 volunteers translated Coursera courses into Chinese.

At the start, Guokr’s MOOCs only had about 43,000 learners. Now it has over 800,000 registered users, so it seems the partnership with Courera paid off. It was Coursera’s second partner in China after Yeeyan.

See: Coursera picks up steam in China as more students take MOOCs on mobile

Guokr was originally founded in 2010 as a nonprofit organization by doctor of neurobiology Ji Shisan and writer Mu Ji. It secured a US$3 million series A round of financing in May 2011 from TBP, then a series B early this year from IDG.

With its latest investment, Ji Shisan says Guokr will focus on bringing in more overseas course content. He says the difference in quality between Chinese MOOCs and their foreign counterparts is still very large.

Other MOOC sites in China include the Chinese version of EdX, XuetangX, and Kaikeba.

See: Harvard and MIT’s edX platform powers a new online education portal in China