16 Firms from China Included in GSV's 'Global Edtech 50'

The list is compiled by GSV Ventures, an early-stage venture fund that partners with entrepreneurs and their companies in the USD 2 trillion global learning and talent technology sector. The 'Global Edtech 50' list is comprised of the leading, venture-backed, private companies in the Digital Learning sector. In a time of great uncertainty in the world, the platforms chosen were able to aid in transitioning classrooms online, maintaining access to educational resources and opportunities, and reskilling workers in a time of peak unemployment. Out of the 50 companies selected, 16 belong to China. The companies include 17zuoye, Baicizhan, ClassIn, Codemao, Spark Education (Huohua Siwei), Kaikeba, Kaishu Story, Knowbox, Onion Math, Squirrel AI, VIPKid, VIPThink, Ximalaya, Yuanfudao, Zhangmen and Zuoyebang. This showcases China's dominance from the past years with 16 companies from the region. Platforms like Yuanfudao, Zuoyebang, and Ximalaya reached hundreds of millions of learners each, and the 16 companies above reaching an aggregate of 1.3 billion learners. Yuanfudao and Zuoyebang also had two mega-rounds this year, raising USD 1.75B in total. While K-12 online tutoring and English Language Learning (ELL) have continued to be the two largest categories for startups, other areas such as programming and math (e.g., Codemao, VIPThink), online higher education (e.g., Kaikeba), and in-classroom tools (e.g., ClassIn, Squirrel AI) have been growing rapidly. The four core factors taken into consideration for this list were Educational Impact (ROE), Learner Base, Business Scale, and Global Reach. In aggregate, the 50 companies below reach over 2.7 billion learners around the world.