Chinese edtech startup VIPThink bags $180m in round led by Vision Fund 2

Chinese edtech startup VIPThink, which is also known as Wandou Siwei, announced that it has secured US$180 million in a series C round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

VIPThink CEO and founder Zhang Jie / Photo credit: VIPThink

Sinovation Ventures – helmed by Google China’s Kai-Fu Lee – Alpha Animation CEO Dongqing Cai’s family foundation, private educational services provider New Oriental, VC firm DCM, and Enlight Growth Partners also participated in the round.

Founded in 2016, VIPThink mainly provides online math lessons for kids ranging from 2 to 12 years old. It claims to record over 220 million yuan (US$33.2 million) in monthly revenue and aims to onboard 10,000 teachers and serve 1 million students in the future, according to a statement.

Sinovation Ventures’s Lee says the firm will help VIPThink apply artificial intelligence to its lessons. Meanwhile, Alpha Animation said it will enable the company to create a new education ecosystem by combining learning with anime.

Last year, VIPThink raised US$1.5 million in a series A round from DCM and Sinovation Ventures, as well as hundreds of millions of yuan in a series B round led by New Oriental.

Along with the latest investment, the company also announced that it has merged with Magic Ears, which provides kids with online English lessons. Following the deal, VIPThink aims to create a one-stop online learning platform for kids in China.

Magic Ears was founded in 2016 and received 120 million yuan (US$18.1 million) in a series A round led by Hillhouse Capital in 2018, with participation from ZhenFund.

According to research firm Daxue Consulting, the online education market in China is expected to reach over 540 billion yuan (US$81.5 billion) by 2022.

Major players in the market include Yuanfudao, which was valued at US$15.5 billion, and Huohua Siwei, which raised US$100 million in a Tencent-led series E2 round last month. There is also Zuoyebang, which is backed by Tiger Global, SoftBank, and Sequoia Capital China.

Currency converted from Chinese yuan to US dollar: US$1 = 6.62 yuan.