Here is a review of the events that took place in the education industry during the past week.
During the past week, a total of 11 enterprises in the field of education received financing, out of which seven are from china and the remaining for are foreign firms. Three out of the seven Chinese startups focus on children’s STEAM education, other include English education, vocational education and early childhood education.
Huohua Siwei
Huohua raised USD 85 million last week from world –known investors, KKR and GGV in its series D round. Huohua is a leading K12 education company which focuses on early childhood mathematics. The financing also included old shareholders, Sequoia Capital China, IDG Capital, NorthernLight Venture Capital, and Lightspeed Capital.
Hexiaoxiang
Hexiaoxiang (河小象) which is a children’s online STEAM education startup, announced a raise of CNY 200 million in B round of financing last week. 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 company said finances raised will mainly be used for IT and AI technology upgrading.
Xigua Chuangke
Xigua Chuangke (西瓜创客) a children’s online programming education firm also announced its CNY 150 million B round of financing last week. The round was led by New Oriental (新东方), SAIF Partners (赛富基金), Baicizhan (百词斩/薄荷阅读), old shareholders Sequoia Capital China (红杉资本中国), and Matrix Partners China (经纬中国), with Lighthouse capital (光源资本) as the financial advisor.
In addition to the events Liulishuo (NYSE: LAIX) released its Q2 financial report. According to the report revenue’s of the New York listed company reached CNY 276 million, a year-on-year increase of 104%; gross profit margin of CNY 212 million, an increase of 103.2% over the same period last year which was CNY 104 million.
ROOBO a company dedicated to creating a holistic system that integrates world leading A.I. robot system, product and service, released two new children’s education products “Pudding S” and “Pudding BeanQ” last week.
Pudding S accompany smart robot for children education seizes the golden period of children growth. It Features intelligent conversation, English translation, interative stories, encyclopedia knowledge Q&A, remote video call, voice recording, growth planning, and real time monitoring.
Pudding BeanQ has four functions: English teaching AI interaction, which is further divided into three stages: 2 to 4 year-old preschool English initiation, 4 to 6 year-old preschool to elementary School Early English Education, 6 to 10 Year-Old Practicing according to the progress of elementary school English course. Picture book identification real-human reading audio, practicing according to the progress of elementary school English textbook and video conversation smart snapshot.
The Artificial Intelligence Conference was held at the Shanghai World Expo Center yesterday. Among them, the 2019 World Artificial Intelligence Conference Education Technology and Artificial Intelligence Forum, sponsored by EqualOcean’s sister publication EO Company and co-organized by Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Society, ended successfully. At this summit, EO Company was awarded the “2019 China AI+ Education Enterprise Top 20” award.