D IS FOR DADA: Chinese online tutoring service DaDa has raised $255 million in a Series D round led by private equity firm Warburg Pincus, DealStreetAsia reports. Investors TAL Education Company and Yonghua Capital also participated.
Previously known as DaDaABC, the Shanghai-based company connects Chinese children, ages 4 to 16—as well as children from South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and other countries—with native English speakers to help them with their language and pronunciation skills. Tutors and students meet virtually, often from their own homes across the globe, through DaDa’s AI-powered online portal.
To date, DaDa has raked in more than $860 million from investors, according to Crunchbase.
Similar services have become hugely popular in China in recent years. VIPKID and MagicEars are among several other companies that have emerged—and raised hundreds of millions in venture capital—to meet the country’s demand for English-speaking tutors.
