This investment is certainly a good news for China’s STEAM education as investors are willing to pour money into the sector.
Childrens online STEAM education startup Hexiaoxiang (河小象) annouunced a raise of CNY 200 million in B round of financing. The funding was jointly led by FDT (金融创新工场), Bertelsmann Asia Investments (贝塔斯曼亚洲投资基金), and TAL Education Group (好未来, TAL:NYSE). The finances raised will mainly be used for IT and AI technology upgrading reported EO.com, sister publication of EqualOcean.
Only four months ago the firm raised an undisclosed amount in its A round of financing which was led by GSR Ventures (金沙江创投), an investor which has also taken part in USD 85 million D round of another childrens STEAM education company Huohua siwei (火花思维) announced this morning.
According to the company it adopts the “AI+Education” model. It integrates innovative technology such as image recognition, voice assessment, intelligent matching, big data analysis and independently develops courses. With the core product of “Dayuwen (大语文)”, it also launched products such as, calligraphy art, and is committed to help children improve their comprehensive quality.
The courses are divided into three steps: Firstly the students learn through recorded videos or real teacher one on one classes, then comes the part where the students actually start practicing writing using the special pencil provided by the company. Final part is the homework and questioning part, the students can comment or ask questions from the teachers. The courses have daily rankings for students to motivate them to learn even more and get higher rankings.
The startup claims that it is serving more than two million students out of which the number of regular-price students is in tens of thousands, about 1000 teachers and covering more than 270 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hangzhou.