在線教育集團(tuán)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(yǔ)教育平臺(tái)VIPKID已完成2億美元融資，本輪融資由紅杉中國(guó)(Sequoia Capital China)和騰訊控股(Tencent Holdings)領(lǐng)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(jìn)行之際，中國(guó)企業(yè)正在爭(zhēng)奪價(jià)值80億美元，競(jìng)爭(zhēng)激烈的英語(yǔ)家教市場(chǎng)。

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(guó)父母愿意傾盡所有來(lái)讓孩子獲得教育優(yōu)勢(shì)，VIPKID希望憑借讓家教更具擴(kuò)展性的新技術(shù)，能夠利用這一意愿。

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

目前中國(guó)在線輔導(dǎo)市場(chǎng)達(dá)到20億元人民幣(合3億美元)，VIPKID占據(jù)了近一半市場(chǎng)。

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(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手猿輔導(dǎo)(Yuanfudao)募得1.2億美元，讓這家創(chuàng)業(yè)公司的估值也超過(guò)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(chuàng)始人兼首席執(zhí)行官米雯娟(Cindy Mi)表示：“在中國(guó)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(jié)合技術(shù)與投資的公司也參與了進(jìn)來(lái)。

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(chuàng)公司作業(yè)幫(Zuo Ye Bang)，而VIPKID是騰訊云(Tencent Cloud)的大客戶，它將20萬(wàn)名學(xué)生、2萬(wàn)名教師以及100多萬(wàn)個(gè)班級(jí)的數(shù)據(jù)存儲(chǔ)在騰訊云上。

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雇傭的是美國(guó)和加拿大的英語(yǔ)母語(yǔ)者。它的許多競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手則招募的是曾在中國(guó)一流大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)教育的中國(guó)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(xué)生，她會(huì)在數(shù)學(xué)課上看科幻小說(shuō)，而且她從未參加過(guò)高考——這個(gè)考試決定了中國(guó)絕大多數(shù)想要入讀國(guó)內(nèi)一流大學(xué)的學(xué)生的命運(yùn)。米雯娟說(shuō)她12歲左右才接觸到英語(yǔ)，聽(tīng)著《鄉(xiāng)村之路》(Country road)等美國(guó)鄉(xiāng)村音樂(lè)以及《泰坦尼克號(hào)》(Titanic)電影主題曲的磁帶來(lái)練習(xí)英語(yǔ)。

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.

后來(lái)她與在哈爾濱經(jīng)營(yíng)輔導(dǎo)生意的叔叔一起工作，白天教學(xué)，晚上就把教室當(dāng)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還宣布了一項(xiàng)新的鏡像計(jì)劃，它推出了Lingo Bus，雇傭中國(guó)教師幫助北美以及全球其他地區(qū)的兒童學(xué)習(xí)漢語(yǔ)。首批用戶中就有VIPKID美國(guó)英語(yǔ)教師的孩子。