Beijing-based children’s programming education startup Hetao 101 has raised $50 million in a Series B funding round led by investment firm Huaxing Growth Capital under China Renaissance and Chinese private equity and venture capital firm Hillhouse Capital Group.
Other investors such as Zhongyuan Capital, investment firm We Capital, tech-focused venture capital firm Source Code Capital and Chinese venture capitalist XVC also participated in the round.
Founded in 2017, Hetao 101 provides online programming classes and course products for children aged 6 to 12. The company applies the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) teaching standards to develop specialized curriculum with an emphasis on programming skill development, programming training and professional coding to guide young students interested in computer science.
Hetao 101 is committed to promoting programming education through scientific and technological means and to inspire the learning power of Chinese children through advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and adaptive learning, and scientific-educational methods. The company plans to use the new funding proceeds to develop its AI teaching service and upgrade technology.
The latest funding round comes less than 8 months after the company raised $17 million in a Series A+ round of funding by Hillhouse Capital Group, Source Code Capital and XVC in February this year. The startup claims that it is the biggest amount of funding round in children’s programming education in China.
Emphasizing on the importance of programming education, partner at Huaxing Growth Capital Du Yongbo said,
“As one important sector of quality education, children programming education develops fast. The post-80s and post-90s parents know well how much artificial intelligence could influence their life and have realized the importance of programming education for children. We are optimistic in Hetao 101 because of its AI teaching plus real people service model, which is free from looking for large amount of qualified teachers.”
Meanwhile, according to a report, children’s programming education has become one of the hottest tracks in China in recent years. It is said that there are currently more than 200 children’s programming companies on the market. The same report said that capital is pouring into the industry and currently more than 60 children’s programming companies have completed financing. It further mentioned that kindergarten, elementary school, and middle school students are the core target of programming education. According to statistics from the Ministry of Education, in 2015, the number of these three groups was about 183 million.
Hetao 101 claims that it has more than 650,000 registered students in its platform from more than 30 countries.
