Edtech company Snapask raises $35m from Asia Partners, Intervest

Snapask, an educational technology startup based in Hong Kong, has announced the close of a US$35 million funding round. The lead investors include Asia Partners, the Singapore-based fund led by Nick Nash and Oliver Rippel, as well as South Korea’s Intervest.

Snapask declined to comment on its valuation, but a source familiar with the matter says it exceeded US$200 million.

Photo credit: Snapask

The funds will be used to grow its business in Southeast Asia and expand into new markets such as Vietnam. The company is also opening a regional headquarters in Singapore.

“We will continue to invest in both products and content to meet students’ learning needs, focusing on the promotion of self-directed learning and creating environments in which students can compete and cooperate with peers,” says Snapask founder and CEO Timothy Yu.

This brings Snapask’s total fundraising to US$50 million, having raised an undisclosed series B round in June 2019 from venture capital firm SOSV. The company says it serves over 3 million students across eight markets.

Founded in 2015, Snapask started out with a feature that lets students upload a photo of their homework and get answers from tutors. This question-and-answer feature remains the company’s main product, but its offerings have since expanded to include Sofasoda, which prepares university students for job interviews. It also has Lab, which provides students with after-school study spaces in Hong Kong, Taipei, and Seoul as well as Wizmo, an analytics platform that allows teachers to track their students’ progress.

The company will also use the latest funding to develop educational videos. Yu says that the interaction between students and the tutors will be the key driver for this service, prompting Snapask to explore how it can build engaging content.