VIPKID, which connects English language teachers in the US with a vast pool of Chinese students over the internet, is struggling to raise a fresh $500m round of funding at a targeted $5.5bn to $6bn valuation, according to investors.
The six-year-old company, which raised $500m last June from investors including Coatue, Tencent and Sequoia, claims to be one of the world’s biggest online education companies, with 40,000 teachers in the US and more than 300,000 students in China.
But investors who were attracted by the enthusiasm of Chinese parents for teaching their children English said they have concerns over the company’s high costs — a complaint echoed across numerous Chinese tech start-ups.