Online education platform Huohua seeks to expand children's horizons

More efforts are needed to foster ability oriented tutoring in addition to teaching basic subjects in China, according to an industry insider.

"Unlocking children's potential is not merely helping them grasp basic knowledge, it is more important to help them think out of the box to solve problems that arise in their daily lives," Luo Jian, CEO of online mathematical thinking platform Huohua, said.

"Such ability oriented education can not only aid them in studies but also help them maintain the curiosity for knowledge, ability to think as well as to create," Luo said during at the Global Education Summit 2019 on Monday.

In the past year, a group of companies have caught investors' attention by focusing on education that nurtures children's abilities instead of just learning fundamentals like math and English.

Huohua mainly offers online mathematic thinking lessons to children and currently boasts 70,000 users.

"We are also expanding our business to Mandarin teaching since this September, where we want to help children learn pinyin and furthermore to nurture their ability of reading comprehension," Luo said.

The firm announced in August this year 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.