Seoul-based education technology startup Mathpresso has raised US$14.5 million in a Series B funding round led by venture capital firm Legend Capital.
Besides Legend Capital, participants in the round include new investors InterVest and NP Investments and existing investor Mirae Asset Venture Investment.
Launched in 2018, Mathpresso is the creator of AI-driven education app Qanda. The app, which is currently available in Korean, Japanese, English, Vietnamese, and Indonesian, helps students search for solutions to math problems by taking a photo. It also enables students to ask questions directly to school tutors. Qanda uses AI-based optical character recognition to scan math problems, where students take a photo of a problem and upload it to get instructions for how to solve it from the app or tutors. The queries are added to the app’s database so other users with the same problem could find the right solution via the app’s search engine.
Mathpresso claims Qanda app is currently used by a third of students in South Korea who use it to do their homework or study for exams. Launched in markets including Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore last year, the company claims it now has users in more 50 countries.
Speaking about its mission and its plans to use the new investment, Mathpresso Co-founder and CEO Jongheun Lee said,
“Our mission is to provide equal opportunities to education through technology. With the new investment, we plan to bolster our presence in the Asian market beyond Korea and Japan, which will bring us closer to achieving our mission.”
The company also has recently introduced a mobile workbook service in Korea, where students can selectively solve practice problems based on their learning status.
Expressing its confidence on the capability of Mathpresso to expand and grow overseas, Legend Capital Managing Director Joon Sung Park said,
“We strongly believe that Mathpresso has the technological and operational capabilities to expand overseas and grasp new opportunities emerging from the digitization of education, such as offering personalized learning for each individual student.”
Needless to mention, Legend Capital is an independent venture capital firm under Legend Holdings and focuses on early-stage and expansion-stage investments. The firm is also an early investor in leading Chinese mobile education companies such as Zuoyebang and Onion Math.
Meanwhile, it is reported that the latest investment round has brought Mathpresso’s total capital raised to date to US$21.2 million. Hope the new investment will enable the company to fulfil its expansion plans in Asian market.
