Onion Math Closes 300 Million Yuan Series D Round, FreeS Fund Continues to Follow On | FreeS Fund Deal News
Internet-based inclusive education focused on primary and secondary school students
" Investor Perspective
Li Feng, Founding Partner, FreeS Fund
Email: feng@freesvc.com
From Series A through Series D, FreeS Fund participated in every round of financing for Onion Math, and witnessed each important change the company and its team underwent over nearly four years:
From the initial uncertainty about whether the market would accept this content format, to whether good content could become a good service, to whether that service could charge online, achieve scalable growth, and whether the experience and brand Onion had built in middle-school math could be replicated when expanding to other subjects.
Every uncertainty was answered conclusively by Onion through time and effort.
Before entering the investment industry, I spent seven years at New Oriental. As a former education practitioner, I've always loved this sector, but haven't invested heavily in it. The main reason is that my ideal education company requires two scarce qualities:
First, marketing costs should be relatively low. Because truly excellent education and training models rely on users actively spreading their appreciation for you, combined with demonstrably strong results. Almost all the best brands and companies in low-frequency, mid-to-high price-point, professional service industries — including healthcare, education, and finance — share this trait.
Second, as a foundational social service, education needs to combine idealism (social value) with commercial viability, which is extremely difficult. What's remarkable is that the Onion team excels in both areas. This is also the most important reason we continued to invest in Onion Math.
Additionally, something that makes me proud is that Onion has consistently used commercial success to support public welfare. Their "Onion Teaching Assistant Initiative" has become one of China's largest educational charity programs.
"
In 2019, the online education industry was showing new momentum, as the era of AI-powered personalized and inclusive education was arriving in full force. The deep integration of high-quality video course content with AI and big data technology not only empowered school teachers to innovate in their instruction, but also greatly enhanced the learning experience and reduced the cost of quality education, allowing more children and families to access personalized, inclusive education.
On April 25, 2019, the K-12 online math brand "Onion Math" announced that it had completed its Series D round in February, raising 300 million RMB in total, led by Primavera Venture Partners with follow-on participation from Kunlun Tech and other existing and new shareholders. Lighthouse Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor for this round. To date, the company has raised over 600 million RMB in total, with investors including Primavera Venture Partners, Kunlun Tech, FreeS Fund, Legend Capital, Tencent, StarVC, Qingsong Fund, Maorong Capital, and the 5Y Capital Foundation.
Yang Linfeng, co-founder and CEO of Onion Math, stated that this round of funding would be used to increase investment in online course R&D and AI technology product applications, comprehensively advancing AI-powered personalized inclusive education.
Onion Math was founded in late 2013, originating from a rural IT education charity project. It was co-founded by Yang Linfeng, a Harvard University graduate; Zhu Ruochen, a Duke University graduate; and Li Nuo, a former technical executive from Sinovation Ventures' "Dianxin OS." For years, the company has focused on internet-based inclusive education for primary and secondary schools, using a 100% human-computer interactive learning model and high-quality video course content with adaptive learning experiences to provide personalized educational services for teachers and students.
Five years since its founding, Onion Math currently has over 20 million student users and over 600,000 teacher users, widely covering more than 150,000 primary and secondary schools across over 2,800 districts and counties in all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities nationwide. Users from third-tier cities and below, as well as rural areas, account for approximately 65%. According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences' 2018 China K-12 Online Education Consumer Research Report, Onion Math holds over 60% market share in the primary and secondary school online math market, placing it in an industry-leading position.
Unlike conventional online courses or one-on-one tutoring, Onion Math's product abandons live instruction by human teachers. Based on national curriculum standards and textbooks, the company has independently developed approximately 2,000 creative animated video courses. Each lesson averages 5-8 minutes, intensively explaining one knowledge point to help students achieve deep understanding, with rich intelligent interactive exercises during and after class to support efficient learning.
This student-centered teaching model, through engaging and precise personalized learning experiences, has been well-received by students and effectively promotes active learning, cultivating self-directed learning and active thinking abilities — challenging the stereotype that "students don't like to learn."
Onion Math has also developed an intelligent teaching assistant product for teachers, assisting school teachers in implementing personalized classroom instruction and moving away from experience-based teaching. Since 2017, the company has hosted the "HOPE Outstanding Teacher" training program for two consecutive years, promoting exchange and growth among teachers nationwide on instructional innovation. For rural teachers in impoverished areas, Onion Math has continuously provided charity teaching assistant services for five years, partnering with organizations including the Youcheng Foundation, Teach for China, and the 21st Century Education Research Institute, with services covering over 40,000 teachers at more than 3,000 rural schools across 29 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities.
For schools, Onion Math has also launched a smart classroom solution, including teacher IT instructional practice courses, teaching resources, learning big data analytics, intelligent diagnostics, and personalized teaching assistants. Together with rural schools, ordinary schools, and prestigious schools in different regions nationwide, the company has explored normalized IT-based instructional innovation models, such as at Beijing Academy, Urumqi No. 15 Middle School, and Xianning He Gongwei Middle School. To promote the deep integration of technology and instruction, in 2018 Onion Math jointly launched the "Future Education Practitioner Alliance" with the High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China Xishan School, Beijing Academy, and Guangdong Experimental High School, subsequently inviting Changsha No. 11 Middle School, Linfen Pingyang Middle School, and Dongguan Xiaoniujin Daoming Foreign Language School to join, with multiple parties conducting long-term practical exploration around AI and instructional innovation.
Yang Linfeng explained that Onion has also launched physics, Chinese language, and English courses, achieving comprehensive multi-subject coverage from primary through high school. Free courses account for 50% of the total, while paid courses cost less than 50 RMB per month. The platform's total monthly learning time for all courses exceeds 150 million minutes, with an average course completion rate exceeding 70%.
Onion Math established an AI lab in early 2017, focusing on its human-computer interactive learning video courses and independently developing an AI-powered personalized learning system. Through dynamic learning strategy planning, personalized content recommendation, intelligent testing and problem diagnosis, and adaptive practice, the system helps students progress from unfamiliarity with knowledge to mastery. Yang Linfeng explained that the company continues in-depth research in big data storage, deep learning algorithm applications, and other areas, with the platform having accumulated over 20 billion multi-dimensional learning data points, including video data, exercise data, and behavioral data.
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