The Global E-Learning market is expected to grow 7.2% annually over the next decade to $325 billion by 2025. The growth in the market is expected to be driven by emerging trends of gamification of learning, implementation of IT security, cloud-based solutions, and growth in online content & digitization. China’s VIPKid is a leading Billion Dollar Unicorn player in the space.

VIPKid’s Offerings

Beijing-based VIPKid was founded by Cindy Mi and Jessie Chen in 2013. Prior to setting up VIPKid, Mi was working at building a brick-and-mortar tutoring business with her uncle. Mi was inspired to set up VIPKid because of a troubling experience in her childhood. As a kid, she had relocated to a remote northeastern region in the Heilongjiang province in China. At her new school, her math teacher wasn’t very welcoming to her and often ignored her in the class. Mi started reading science-fiction magazines in the class. But she was caught reading them one day and the teacher asked her to get out of the classroom, calling her the worst student. Mi still gets nightmares about her teacher. She is convinced that teachers have considerable influence on children’s lives and she needed to work in the field of education to help build this relationship.

Mi also loved reading English, and would often spend her allowance on books and magazines. By 15, she was tutoring other students and a few years later, she dropped out of high school to start a language-instruction company with her uncle. The traditional tutoring center did well and she helped expand the business to several learning centers in Beijing over the next ten years. But Mi wanted to do more.

She returned to school and spent a semester at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. In 2013, she met with former Google China chief Kaifu Lee and talked with him about the idea for VIPKid. Since then things haven’t been the same. For the next year, Mi worked on developing the software and curriculum. Today, VIPKid offers Chinese students access to the North American elementary school education, online. Kids aged five to twelve can connect with American instructors to study English, Math, Science, and other subjects. VIPKid’s software operates like a video-conferencing solution where a 25-minute lesson is offered in the subject through a presentation, real-time audio, and video links.