K12 Education Company Huohua Siwei Finishes Series E Financing, Raising Over $400M
Online K-12 education platform Huohua Siwei recently completed a Series E round of financing, raising more than $400 million through three stages – the E1, E2 and E3, respectively – of fundraising.
Led by Trustbridge Partners and Tencent Investment, the E3 round raised over $150 million, as the company disclosed on Jan. 24. The first two rounds were instead led by KKR and Tencent, putting in US$150 million and $100 million respectively.
After the completion of Series E financing, the company’s valuation hit $1.5 billion.
A hot market over the past year, online education has been receiving increasing interest from capital markets. Look no farther than at Edtech unicorn Zuoyebang – the company, backed by investors such as Alibaba Group, obtained $1.6 billion in funds at the beginning of January.
SEE ALSO: Chinese Edtech Startup Zuoyebang Obtains $1.6B in funding, Reigning Over Online Tutoring Market
One of its biggest domestic competitors and live course provider Yuanfudao secured $2.2 billion in funds last October and was rumored to be preparing for an IPO. They also participated in Huohua Siwei’s E2 financing round.
Following the completion of Series E financing, Huohua Siwei, which means Spark Education in Chinese, has become one of the domestic online education companies with the most overseas capital support.
Its CEO Luo Jian revealed in an internal letter that the number of students they serve has reached 85,000 per day and that more than 250,000 students are learning on its app.
The company’s products cover two major areas — one is the live classes focusing on mathematical thinking and Chinese, while the other one is the recently-launched brand “Little Sparks AI Class” that covers mathematics, Chinese, and English for young kids. This is usual, since by and large the edtech sector is focused on math thinking training for children aged 3-10.
Huohua Siwei is reported to be preparing for a U.S. IPO in 2021, according to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter.
