Onion Academy Co-Founder Yang Linfeng Named to Fortune China’s 2026 Most Promising Under-40 List
Yang Linfeng, co-founder and chairman of Chinese K-12 edtech company Onion Academy, has been named to Fortune China’s 2026 list of the most promising business elites under 40, the magazine announced on September 22. He appears in the "comprehensive" category at age 38.
Fortune China has published its 40 Under 40 ranking since 2011; past honorees include Pony Ma, Ding Lei and Zhang Yiming. The 2026 edition is themed around young founders turning technology narratives into commercial reality, with a main list of 40 names and a separate "most promising" sub-list covering artificial intelligence, healthcare and green technology.
This year’s main list includes Unitree Robotics founder Wang Xingxing, Moonshot AI founder Yang Zhilin, MiniMax founder Yan Junjie and Tencent chief AI scientist Yao Shunyu — a line-up that underlines how far AI and robotics now dominate Chinese youth entrepreneurship.
Yang graduated from Harvard University with a degree in computer science and worked at Boston Consulting Group before moving into education. In 2011 he co-launched the "Sunshine Book House" rural digital education initiative with Zhu Ruochen, an effort to use information technology to narrow the education gap in the countryside.
Two years later he co-founded Onion Academy with Zhu Ruochen and Li Nuo, turning what the team had learned in the field into a business serving a far broader learner base. Rather than handing students answers, Yang has said, the company focuses on whether technology can lower the barrier to understanding knowledge and help students think independently and learn on their own.
With the rise of generative AI, Onion Academy has combined large language models with its course library, knowledge graph and learning data. When a student gets stuck, the system first locates the relevant knowledge points, then pulls course content to prompt and explain, and checks comprehension through follow-up questions, expression and practice. Its product line now includes an AI study companion, a smart learning device and the AI Future Classroom, covering both home and school settings.
The company reports more than 130 million registered student users and over 4 million registered teachers, and says it works in depth with more than 2,000 schools. It has raised over RMB 600 million (roughly US$84 million) in cumulative funding for content and R&D, backed by FreesFund, Legend Capital, Tencent and Primavera Capital.
Onion has also pushed its digital courses and teacher services into philanthropy: its "Onion Teaching Assistant" program has served more than 4.7 million rural teachers and students across over 30,000 rural schools in 29 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.
"Business achievement and social responsibility should not be two parallel lines," Yang said, arguing that in education a company’s products shape how a generation understands learning and growth. Fortune noted that the list rewards founders who can convert a technology story into a company, revenue and impact the market can verify.
Fortune China has published its 40 Under 40 ranking since 2011; past honorees include Pony Ma, Ding Lei and Zhang Yiming. The 2026 edition is themed around young founders turning technology narratives into commercial reality, with a main list of 40 names and a separate "most promising" sub-list covering artificial intelligence, healthcare and green technology.
This year’s main list includes Unitree Robotics founder Wang Xingxing, Moonshot AI founder Yang Zhilin, MiniMax founder Yan Junjie and Tencent chief AI scientist Yao Shunyu — a line-up that underlines how far AI and robotics now dominate Chinese youth entrepreneurship.
Yang graduated from Harvard University with a degree in computer science and worked at Boston Consulting Group before moving into education. In 2011 he co-launched the "Sunshine Book House" rural digital education initiative with Zhu Ruochen, an effort to use information technology to narrow the education gap in the countryside.
Two years later he co-founded Onion Academy with Zhu Ruochen and Li Nuo, turning what the team had learned in the field into a business serving a far broader learner base. Rather than handing students answers, Yang has said, the company focuses on whether technology can lower the barrier to understanding knowledge and help students think independently and learn on their own.
With the rise of generative AI, Onion Academy has combined large language models with its course library, knowledge graph and learning data. When a student gets stuck, the system first locates the relevant knowledge points, then pulls course content to prompt and explain, and checks comprehension through follow-up questions, expression and practice. Its product line now includes an AI study companion, a smart learning device and the AI Future Classroom, covering both home and school settings.
The company reports more than 130 million registered student users and over 4 million registered teachers, and says it works in depth with more than 2,000 schools. It has raised over RMB 600 million (roughly US$84 million) in cumulative funding for content and R&D, backed by FreesFund, Legend Capital, Tencent and Primavera Capital.
Onion has also pushed its digital courses and teacher services into philanthropy: its "Onion Teaching Assistant" program has served more than 4.7 million rural teachers and students across over 30,000 rural schools in 29 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.
"Business achievement and social responsibility should not be two parallel lines," Yang said, arguing that in education a company’s products shape how a generation understands learning and growth. Fortune noted that the list rewards founders who can convert a technology story into a company, revenue and impact the market can verify.
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