Europe’s first billion-dollar education start-up is a tutoring site backed by SoftBank, Tencent
LONDON — SoftBank, Tencent and other leading investors are betting that the next big online education company will come out of Europe.
Vienna-based online tutoring start-up GoStudent said Tuesday that it raised 205 million euros ($244 million) in a bumper investment round that values the five-year-old firm at 1.4 billion euros, or about $1.67 billion.
According to CB Insights data, that means GoStudent is Europe's first education technology — or edtech — unicorn, a start-up with a valuation of at least $1 billion. Though Norwegian rival Kahoot hit a billion-dollar valuation last year, it doesn't technically count as it has been publicly listed since October 2019.
GoStudent was founded in 2016 by Austrian entrepreneur Felix Ohswald, who was inspired by practical math lessons from his grandfather before he even started school.
"He had this ability to teach you that stuff in a way that was very applicable," Ohswald told CNBC, referring to his grandfather.
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