Ringle, a South Korean online English tutoring platform, has raised $18 million in a Series A funding round led by Must Asset Management.
One Asset Management, Xoloninvest, and MoCA Ventures also participated in the round.
The Seoul-based company started the Series A round with $8.9 million funding in late March and closed the round in early June with a total of $18 million. With the latest funding, the company is now valued at $90 million.
Ringle provides a platform for teachers and students to teach and learn English for various purposes, such as for working or studying abroad, exam and interview preparation, correct pronunciation, etc. It offers one-on-one video English lessons with native-speaking tutors from prestigious universities in English-speaking countries. The platform offers over 300 high-quality digital textbooks, educational webinars, online/offline career seminars on studying or working abroad, and more. Using AI-based analytics, the platform also provides a comprehensive data-based feedback report on students’ speech pace, vocabulary, and expression range.
Seung-hoon Lee and Sung-pah Lee started Ringle in 2015 to solve a problem they faced as non-native English speakers studying in the US. The platform today has more than 700 tutors who attended prestigious universities from across the US and the UK, and more than 100,000 users, with 30% of them based outside of South Korea.
Speaking about the company, Sung-pah Lee, Co-founder of Ringle, said,
“I wanted to create a service that changes people’s lives. Our primary goal is to break down language barriers, but ultimately what we’re doing is connecting top talents from around the world, providing a platform for mutual learning and growth.”
The company said it will use the fresh capital to enhance its tech platform, develop more educational content, and grow its team at its headquarters in Seoul and San Mateo, California. It will also drive its growth in the US and other countries with large student bases such as the UK, Japan, Australia, and Singapore.
Additionally, Ringle plans to diversify its revenue sources by providing a subscription option to access premium content. It also plans to expand its younger student base, aged 10 and above, whose program the company is launching in the second half of the year.
Commenting on the investment, a representative from Must Asset Management said,
“We believe Ringle is well-positioned for tremendous growth. Ringle will provide not only the best English education with premium content and AI-based learning platform but grow into a global EdTech company that connects top talents from around the world.”
Ringle said its revenue has grown 3X every year since its inception, and lesson bookings have increased by 390% compared to the previous year.
Ringle’s one-on-one video learning and language diagnostics system has been developed in collaboration with the Korea Institute of Science and Technology’s (KAIST) Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research team. It measures and tracks a student’s complexity, accuracy, and fluency in English speaking.
