Corporate training platform Yunxuetang said it has closed its Series D round, bagging USD 100 million from investors led by Centurium Capital, which is also the main backer behind Luckin Coffee, 36Kr reported on Saturday.
Existing shareholders including Yunfeng Capital, co-founded by former Alibaba chairman Jack Ma, and Susquehanna International Group (SIG) also participated in this round. Yunxuetang raised USD 50 million in a Series C round in September 2018.
In total, the company has raised USD 199 million in venture capital investments since it was founded in 2011, according to market intelligence firm CB Insights.
Lu Ruize, founder of Yunxuetang, told 36Kr that new funds will be used to build its content ecosystem and improve service capabilities.
Yunxuetang provides both free content plus paid courses and software on a freemium model. Besides both free and paid lessons which anyone can access on their site, the Jiangsu-based company also lets businesses develop and operate online classes for their employees. Clients include large names like hotpot chain Haidilao, Didi Chuxing, Nio, and Luckin Coffee, but they have also served nearly 30,000 small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Liu Shaoqiang, executive director of Centurium Capital, said the fund has long been optimistic about the corporate service sector, which is a RMB 100 billion (USD 14.3 billion) market. He added that the business model pioneered by Yunxuetang—offering a combination of software, content, and services—has increased the efficiency and quality of corporate training.
Xia Xiaoyan, partner at Yunfeng Capital, said employee training has potential as both a product for businesses and consumers, while Gong Ting, partner at SIG, noted that corporate training is currently the largest market within digital business-to-business services.
36Kr is KrASIA’s parent company