VIPKID becomes world's biggest online education startup

Chinese online education company VIPKID confirmed to China Daily on Thursday it has raised $500 million in its latest round of financing, a price tag that makes the company the biggest online education startup in the world.

The move was one of the largest rounds of fundraising in the global online education sector, which helped the company become the country's only education startup valued at over 20 billion yuan ($3 billion).

"This round of financing will be mainly used to enlarge teachers from the US, attract talents as well as accelerate steps on global expansion," said Mi Wenjuan, founder and CEO of VIPKID.

According to the company, this landmark round was led by global investment management firm Coatue, Tencent Holdings Ltd, Sequoia Capital and Yunfeng Capital, a private equity firm backed by Alibaba founder Jack Ma.

VIPKID is an online education platform providing children with one-on-one online English courses, and links teachers from North America with Chinese kids aged 4 to 12.

The latest data from the company showed it has enrolled more than 40,000 foreign teachers in its network, enabling it to work with 300,000 paid users across 35 countries and regions.