EqualOcean received a message from VIPKID's Vice President confirming the company's preparation for searching around USD 500 million in a new round of financing.
Jan 31, 2019, /EqualOcean/ - VIPKID is said to be preparing for raising around USD 500 Million in a new round of financing. The news was firstly released by The Information on the 29th Jan, however, the action was not confirmed officially by anyone from the company. Until just now, EqualOcean received a message from the Vice President of VIPKID confirming the company's preparation on the matter. The company will be valued at USD 3500 Million, doubling its valuation of last year if the financing turns out to be a success.
The Vice President also clarified another rumor from a competitor of the company earlier reported by Leiphone.com (雷锋网). In the article, VIPKID's new round of financing forbids investors from reading the company's previous financial reports when making investment decisions.
VIPKID has completed 7 rounds of financing after its incubation in 2014, it could secure at least one round of fresh financing every year since 2014. Altogether it has received USD 880 million; the last round topped USD 500 million, was the highest amount raised in the company's history. Also, the investors behind VIPKID are Chinese giant Tencent (腾讯), and powerful western originated funds like Sequoia Capital, who invested in Alibaba (阿里巴巴) in the past, the current No.1 E-commerce company in China. As the company expands, the startup's losses are also ascending up to more than USD 173 million in 2017. Nevertheless, the company is still promising its investors that it will reach its operating breakeven point by 2022.
Just recently, on January 15th, one of the VIPKID's strong competitors, an online children's English education company, DaDa English announced the completion of its Series D round of financing, the amount was USD 255 million, led by Warburg Pincus and Xue Er Si (学而思) under TAL Education Group (好未来). It seems VIPKID's recent move represents the enhancing of the already fierce competition between the top players of the online children's English education industry.
The company dedicated to online English education for children from 4 to 15 years old, featuring 1 on 1 online lessons offered by teachers from North America. Now, the company has offices in 9 locations worldwide and covering more than 500,000 students. There are 6 brands under the group, including VIPKID, online Chinese learning platform "Lingo Bus", and 1 to 4 small-scale class called "SayABC", etc, covering the entire early education phase of a child from birth to 18 years old.