Riiid raises about 50 billion won in Pre-Series D funding

AI tutor solutions company Riiid said on the 17th that it had raised about 50 billion won from leading investors, including KDB Industrial Bank.

The Pre-Series D round brought in new investors KDB Industrial Bank, NVESTOR and Intervest. Existing investor IMM Investment also participated, following its investment in the Series C round. Riiid’s total funding now stands at about 84 billion won.

Since its founding in 2014, Riiid has led the adoption of AI-based technology in education. In 2017, it launched its first product, Santa, an AI tutor for the TOEIC exam, demonstrating the market potential of AI tutoring with a completely new learning method free from time and location constraints. Since Santa became a paid service at the end of 2017, it has attracted 1.4 million cumulative users, and the company’s revenue has grown by more than 200% annually.

Riiid has also established a strong global position in AI technology. Its research and case studies on diagnosing, analyzing and predicting learner performance using deep learning and reinforcement learning models have appeared at leading A-level conferences, including NeurIPS and CSEDU, demonstrating its distinctive technical capabilities. The company published the first global study to define and predict “mobile learning dropout,” and earlier this year launched EdNet, the world’s largest platform for publicly available educational AI datasets. It currently holds or has applications pending for 70 patents.

“We believe Riiid is establishing practical global standards in educational AI by defining the technologies the industry needs and leading research in the field,” said Intervest Director Jin-hwan Jeon, whose firm participated in the investment. “As demand for effective remote learning solutions grows—not only in education but across industries and sectors—we see enormous growth potential in Riiid’s leadership in educational AI, the market viability of its business model demonstrated by Santa, its excellent talent pool, its scalable technology architecture, and its various global partnerships. These factors led us to invest.”

Riiid plans to use the new funding primarily to advance and optimize its AI technology for global expansion and to recruit talent.

In particular, Riiid plans to strengthen its position as a global education AI deep-tech company and accelerate technology exports, with Riiid Labs, established in Silicon Valley this year, at the center of its strategy. It will continue to enhance its distinctive deep learning technology, which uses accurate, data-driven assessments of ability to enable personalized test-prep learning, and strengthen its global technology and market leadership. The company also plans to offer public schools Formative Learning solutions that support students in achieving their learning goals through ongoing assessment and feedback throughout the learning process, rather than preparation for a specific test. By collaborating with leading technology companies across various fields to develop innovative learning solutions, Riiid aims to shape the future of learning.

“This investment is especially meaningful because it came at a time when the unprecedented, prolonged COVID-19 pandemic had dampened investor sentiment,” said Riiid CEO Youngjun Jang. “We are already pursuing a range of global partnerships based on AI technology that has been validated by academia and the market, and we expect to demonstrate its capabilities through real products and services soon.” He added: “Through in-depth research and development and bold, outstanding commercialization of our technology, we will bring the future of education we imagine to life.”