Online education startup Huohua raises $85m

Chinese online education startup Huohua announced on Monday that it has raised $85 million in its latest round of fundraising, which industry insiders said is the largest round of financing in the math education-focused sector.

The fresh round was led by global investment firm GGV and KKR, with Sequoia Capital China, IDG Capital and LightSpeed China among the investors.

Luo Jian, founder and CEO of Huohua, said the new fundraising will mainly used to beef up presence in the research and development, product upgrading as well as technology innovation.

"We hope to leverage technologies to offer children tailor-made learning experience and help them grasp ability that benefits all their life," he said.

Huohua mainly offers online courses in math to children. It now has nearly 60,000 students on the platform, with the renewal rate reaching 80 percent.

"We have seen strong innovation and fighting spirit from Huohua team. We believe that such spirit will help them to gain a lead in the fierce competition," said Li Hongwei, managing partner of GGV.