China’s ed-tech companies raised $320 million in 2016 Q1, according to the analysis by JMDedu. The funding spread across 33 deals in different fields.

Venture capital for ed-tech startups saw a trend of tightening this year. The $320 million total for 2016 Q1 represents a 57% decrease from 2015 Q4, and a 45% decrease from 2015 Q1.

As for deals by investment stage, we saw a trend towards early-stage investments. Early-stage investments (before B round) accounted for a higher share, approaching 93.9%. What is more interesting, there is no deals lies in C or D round in 2016 Q1.

Meanwhile, two big deals drove the headline funding figures.1Smart led the way in 2016 Q1 with 500 million RMB (≈ 76.92 million dollars) Pre-IPO round (Series E+ in the figure). Koolearn.com followed its way with 300 million RMB (≈ 46.15 million dollars) Pre- IPO round. These two deals account for as much as 39% of the total funding in this quarter.

However, ed-tech financing in 2016 Q1 is still in a “frosty” fundraising climate, comparing to the Top 5 ed-tech deals in 2015 Q1, when all exceeds $50 million.

Breaking down the total by the categories, we found that the majority of dollars continue to concentrate in K12 and professional Skills, accounting for 73% (K12 is 62%, and professional skills is 11%).

Mergers and acquisitions are very active in 2016 Q1, amounting to 3.03 billion RMB (≈ 466.15 million dollars), 45% higher than that of private markets. Most of deals lie education informationization (4) and studying abroad (2).

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For any question about this report, please contact global@jmdedu.com.