在線教育集團VIPKID估值超10億美元

VIPKID, an onLine English education platform for children, has completed a $200m fundraising led by Sequoia Capital China and Tencent Holdings that pushes the Beijing-based company’s valuation above $1bn.

在線兒童英語教育平臺VIPKID已完成2億美元融資，本輪融資由紅杉中國(Sequoia Capital China)和騰訊控股(Tencent Holdings)領投，將這家北京公司的估值推升到10億美元以上。

The fundraising comes as companies are scrapping the highly competitive part of the $8bn market for English language tutoring.

本輪融資進行之際，中國企業正在爭奪價值80億美元，競爭激烈的英語家教市場。

VIPKID hopes to tap the willingness of Chinese parents to spend whatever it takes to give their children an educational edge with new technologies that make tutoring far more scalable.

中國父母願意傾盡所有來讓孩子獲得教育優勢，VIPKID希望憑藉讓家教更具擴展性的新技術，能夠利用這一意願。

In China, the company currently has almost half of the Rmb2bn ($300m) online tutoring market.

目前中國在線輔導市場達到20億元人民幣（合3億美元），VIPKID佔據了近一半市場。

In late May, one of VIPKID’s rivals, Yuanfudao, raised $120m giving that start-up a valuation worth over $1bn as well — with Tencent also taking part in that financing.

5月下旬，VIPKID的競爭對手猿輔導(Yuanfudao)募得1.2億美元，讓這家創業公司的估值也超過了10億美元，騰訊也參與了此次融資。

“Everyone in China understands the power of education,” says Cindy Mi, the young founder and chief executive of VIPKID.

VIPKID的年輕創始人兼首席執行官米雯娟(Cindy Mi)表示：“在中國人人都知道教育的力量。”

Companies that combine technology with investment such as Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent, are also involved.

阿里巴巴(Alibaba)、百度(Baidu)和騰訊等結合技術與投資的公司也參與了進來。

Baidu took a stake in Zuo Ye Bang, another online education start-up, while VIPKID is a big user of Tencent Cloud to store the data it keeps on its 200,000 students, their 20,000 teachers and more than 1m classes.

百度入股了另一家在線教育初創公司作業幫(Zuo Ye Bang)，而VIPKID是騰訊雲(Tencent Cloud)的大客戶，它將20萬名學生、2萬名教師以及100多萬個班級的數據存儲在騰訊雲上。

VIPKID uses native English speakers in the US and Canada. Many of its rivals recruit local Chinese tutors who have studied education at top universities in China.

VIPKID僱傭的是美國和加拿大的英語母語者。它的許多競爭對手則招募的是曾在中國一流大學學習教育的中國本土教師。

Ms Mi was a dropout from high school in Harbin, where she read science fiction in her maths classes and never took the “gao kao”, the exam that determines the fate of most students seeking admission to the top universities in the country. She says that she was exposed to English from about the age of 12 and practised using audio cassettes of country western music such as “Country road” and the theme song from the film Titanic.

米雯娟是哈爾濱一所高中的輟學生，她會在數學課上看科幻小說，而且她從未參加過高考——這個考試決定了中國絕大多數想要入讀國內一流大學的學生的命運。米雯娟說她12歲左右才接觸到英語，聽着《鄉村之路》(Country road)等美國鄉村音樂以及《泰坦尼克號》(Titanic)電影主題曲的磁帶來練習英語。

She then worked with her uncle who ran a tutoring business in Harbin, teaching during the day and turning the classroom into a bedroom at night.

後來她與在哈爾濱經營輔導生意的叔叔一起工作，白天教學，晚上就把教室當做臥室。

On August 23, the company also announced a new, mirror image initiative: it is launching Lingo Bus, using Chinese tutors to help children in North America and elsewhere in the world learn Chinese. Among the first clients are the children of VIPKID’s US-based English teachers.

8月23日，VIPKID還宣佈了一項新的鏡像計劃，它推出了Lingo Bus，僱傭中國教師幫助北美以及全球其他地區的兒童學習漢語。首批用戶中就有VIPKID美國英語教師的孩子。