Zuoyebang, a Chinese EdTech Unicorn, has raised an additional $1.6 Billion in Series E funding

Chinese EdTech Unicorn Zuoyebang announced on Monday that it has raised $1.6 Billion in Series E funding. The investment round was led by Alibaba and included Tiger Global, SoftBank Vision Fund Phase I, Sequoia Capital China Fund, Fangyuan Capital.

Based in Beijing, Zuoyebang is a live tutoring app (its name loosely translates to ‘home tutoring’) and is closely associated with the search engine Baidu. Zuoyebang was founded in 2015 by a former Baidu executive, Hou Jianbin, and has now raised a total of $2.93 billion according to TechCrunch.

This investment follows a $750 million investment in June and underscores how significant remote learning has become since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Zuoyebang reports that it has over 170 million monthly active users. Its flagship product, the Zuoyebang app reportedly utilises artificial intelligence so that students can receive help simply by uploading homework pictures.

China is home to a growing number of EdTech Unicorns (see the toggle for the full list). An EdTech Unicorn is a private company with a valuation in excess of $1billion. Its main competitor is Yuanfudao which raised $2.2 billion in funding back in October.

You can learn more about EdTech here: https://global-edtech.com/edtech-definitions-products-and-trends/

Hou Jianbin, founder and CEO of Zuoyebang, said that online education has entered a long-term state of competition. After this financing round, Zuoyebang will continue to focus on K-12 classes, reinvest in education and technology, strengthen its core competitive advantages, expand product categories, and introduce a new business layout. It also aims to continue to provide high-quality educational resources and services for society.

You can read more about Zuoyebang and this investment round here : https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/sgwmsJTg8ixpYrGtRuXASw