SoftBank-backed Riiid acquires Korean edtech company Qualson

Riiid office / Source: Riiid

In South Korea, the so-called “English fever” has led Korean children to start learning English at 3.7 years old on average. Over the years, that has led to startups entering this space.

One such company is Real Class, which provides conversational English lessons through a mobile app in collaboration with major Hollywood studios like WarnerMedia and NBC Universal.

Riiid, a South Korean AI edtech startup backed by SoftBank Vision Fund, has announced its acquisition of Qualson, which owns Real Class. The amount is undisclosed.

With the acquisition, Riiid – which uses AI to provide personalized learning and adaptive content delivery – can tap into Qualson’s user base, content, and the English-as-a-second-language market. This would add to Riid’s presence in the Asian test-prep space, where its Santa app uses AI to help users prepare for the TOEIC test.

Riiid also licenses its technology to test prep companies and businesses looking to create training programs for employees.

Qualson, meanwhile, collaborates with popular figures in South Korea to deliver high-quality English learning content based on Hollywood movies and TV shows. The video-on-demand and live-class formats target users seeking practical, everyday English skills.

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Riiid also has a Llama-based large-language model called Sheep-duck-llama-2. Apart from Asia, the company is also present in the US and South America. 

This is not the edtech company’s first acquisition: It bought Langoo, a Japanese mobile app distributor, in 2021. In the same year, Riiid raised US$175 million in series D funds led by SoftBank Vision Fund, which brought its total funding to US$250 million.