Online English education brand Magic Ears received USD 6 M for pre-Series A
Magic Ears
Founder: Jin Lei
Founded in: 2017
Financing status: RMB 40 million (USD 6 million) for pre-Series A financing in 2017
Online English education brand, Magic Ears, received USD 6 M for pre-Series A on August 28 to invest in market expansion plans.
Parents in China are increasingly pushing their children to start learning English before they are even allowed to start kindergarten. They also want their children to receive extracurricular English training when they start their education. There are many private English education brands in China that meet these parents’ demand, though they are expensive and scarce. Therefore, companies seeking opportunities in this field look to provide more children with affordable, high-quality English education. One-on-one instruction is not necessary for most parents, but they generally want the price to be reasonable.
Magic Ears is an online English education brand that mainly provides 5-12 year-old children with one-to-four online English classes. Compared with one-to-one classes, Magic Ears’s method is more affordable. Its classes are designed based on five core components: inspiration, imitation, competition, cooperation, and practice. It enables children to practice what they learn, arranges foreigner teachers to run classes, and recruits local assistants for guidance, to ensure that children are not far away from English.
Founded in 2017 in Shanghai, it developed an algorithm for testing children’s English level which it uses to match children at similar levels. Its classes cost between RMB 4000 and RMB 7000. So far, it has more than 1000 paid subscriptions from parents.
This new financing round was from ZhenFund and Yuanfudao. The capital will be used to collect opinions from users to optimize its products, as well as invest in market expansion plans to acquire more users.
Enterprise legal solutions provider Zhaodazhuang received undisclosed Series A in millions of USD
Zhaodazhuang
Founder: Shang Hongjin
Founded in: 2016
Financing status: Series A financing in 2017 amounting to tens of millions of RMB (a few millions USD)
Enterprise legal solutions provider, Zhaodazhuang, received undisclosed Series A in millions of USD on August 30 for market expansion.
Zhaodazhuang is an enterprise legal solutions provider that provides micro and medium enterprises with legal solutions from legal norms to lawsuits. It can provide quality services with convenience and efficiency based on the use of internet technologies. It developed several standardized legal solutions including labor, contract, intellectual property rights, and ownership of standardized products, among others.
Founded in 2016 in Shenzhen, there are more than 20,000 lawyer teams on its platform, as well as over 3000 professional lawyers, according to the data on its website. Its services cover more than 30 cities. Currently, over 10,000 enterprises pay Zhaodazhuang for its legal consultation services.
Zhaodazhuang grabbed this Series A led by Fortune Capital. It plans to use the funds to invest in market expansion plans, as well as optimize its products to enable more enterprises to connect to its legal services easily.
（Top photo from 699pic.com）