- LingoAce announced it has raised $160 million in new funding this year. These are the details.
LingoAce — a Singapore-based global education technology company and leading Mandarin Chinese language learning platform — announced it has raised $160 million in new funding this year. Recently, the company closed on a $105 million in Series C funding round, led by Sequoia Capital India with participation from Owl Ventures, Shunwei Capital, and SWC Global. And this comes less than a year after a previously undisclosed $55 million Series B round, led by Tiger Global and Owl Ventures. With the new funding round, LingoAce has raised $180 million in total funding to date.
LingoAce is transforming the way children learn Mandarin Chinese, the world’s second most spoken language, by creating an engaging educational experience for students with tools that make it easy for parents to plan, schedule, and monitor their children’s learning. And now LingoAce is reaching a global base across more than 100 countries and regions.
Along with the funding, LingoAce is also announcing the hiring of long-time education technology industry veteran, Marshall Roslyn, as the company’s CFO and Chief Strategy Officer. Marshall had joined LingoAce earlier this summer after spending nearly a decade building and helping to lead the Education Technology & Services Investment Banking practice at Goldman Sachs, originally in San Francisco and most recently in Hong Kong as the firm’s sector head in Asia. And as part of the funding rounds, Abheek Anand, Managing Director at Sequoia India and Ian Chiu, Managing Director at Owl Ventures, will join the board of LingoAce. Dennis Yang, former CEO of Udemy, also joined as a member of the company’s advisory board as well.
The new funding round will be used to advance LingoAce’s mission to make new language learning fun, immersive, and interactive for children. And it will also be used to grow the global team with significant hiring underway in the US, Europe and Southeast Asia, to strengthen both curriculum and product development, and to scale sales and marketing support. In the US, which is LingoAce’s largest market, the company has plans to rapidly grow headcount and is actively hiring for positions across these functions.
While LingoAce built its industry leadership on the back of its Mandarin Chinese offering, the company also plans to further develop new English language programs and explore other subjects to meet the continuing demand for education globally.
KEY QUOTES:
“At LingoAce we believe that the opportunity to learn a new language can unlock a world of possibilities for children. With the backing of our investors, we plan to continue to scale our platform to reach more audiences and ensure that more children across the globe will continue to have access to quality online educational experiences.”
— Hugh Yao, CEO and Founder of LingoAce
“Combining academic rigour and best-in-class technology, LingoAce has built a dynamic global platform for kids to learn Mandarin Chinese and more. I’m excited to have joined Hugh and the team in their journey to shape the future of education.”
— Dennis Yang
“The demand for virtual learning across the world has increased due to the pandemic, and LingoAce’s strong curriculum, innovative digital content and platform, and talented team of teachers and executives have helped to drive impressive business growth and user acquisition during this time. As they look to expand beyond Mandarin Chinese and continue to scale globally, Sequoia Capital India is excited to deepen the partnership with Hugh Yao and his team.”
— Abheek Anand, Managing Director at Sequoia India
