South Korea-based edtech startup Mathpresso announced Tuessday it has completed a Series C extension round, which brings the round’s total to approximately $70 million.
The newest round was participated by Signite Partners – a corporate venture capital arm of Shinsegae Group and YBM – one of Korea’s largest education management companies, Mathpresso said in a statement.
Previous backers including Goodwater Capital, SoftBank Ventures Asia, and Mirae Asset Venture Investment also participated in the round.
Mathpresso plans to utilize the investment in further strengthening their vertical services and execution strategy.
“Amidst the funding winter and given current macroeconomic challenges, this investment validates our business productivity solutions in creating sustainable social impact,” said Jake Lee, Mathpresso’s Chief Executive Officer.
The startup was founded in 2015 by Ray Lee and Jake Lee who originally developed QANDA as a 1:1 Q&A service with top university tutors.
The operator of one of Asia’s largest education app QANDA, Mathpresso has previously secured capital from Google and GGV Capital; their latest round last July marked GGV’s first investment in a Korea-based startup.
QANDA, their flagship app, is an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered mobile learning platform for K-12 students.
By recognizing text and mathematical formulas in a photo with optical character recognition (OCR) technology, QANDA provides detailed solutions and personalized learning content catered to each user’s level.
Since its launch, the app has accumulated over 75 million registered users in over50 countries. Over 85 percent of QANDA’s users reside outside of Korea, with its strongest user bases including Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand.
Every day, approximately 11 million photos are uploaded on QANDA worldwide.
To integrate all learning features into the platform, the startup launched additional online-based vertical services last year; QANDA Tutor, which is a tablet-based 1:1 online tutoring service, and QANDA Study, 1:N online live group class in Vietnam.
“We are extremely grateful for the new and existing shareholders who supported us despite the tough market conditions,
“We reiterate our commitment to improving user experience and achieving profitable growth,” said Soo Nahm, its Chief Financial Officer.
Cited KPMG, the firm said that with global fundraising activity dropped to a low not seen since the second quarter of 2020, venture capital investment in Asia fell sharply from $26 billion in the second quarter of 2022, to $21 billion in the third quarter of 2022, and the investor interest has shifted to companies with profitability potential and positive cash flows.
Korea EdTech startup Mathpresso secures strategic investment from Google