South Korean venture capital firms joined a $57 million Series C funding round for Minerva Project, a San Francisco-based firm supporting innovative education based on technology.

The funding was led by Chinese tech giant ByteDance widely known for social media app TikTok and Beijing-based leading private education company TAL Education Group. In Korea, Pinpoint-Kclavis Edutech Unicorn Investment Association formed by Pinpoint Ventures and Kclavis Investment spearheaded the rounding that was participated by Kakao Ventures, Lighthouse Combined, Tan Tan Ventures and ES Investor.

Founded in 2014, Minerva School doesn’t have any physical infrastructure like campus or classroom because classes are taught through live videos. During the four-year undergraduate program, students should live in seven cities around the world including San Francisco in the U.S., London in the U.K., Berlin in Germany, Hyderabad in India, Taipei in Taiwan and Seoul in Korea.

Every class is small video-based seminar at Minerva where students actively engage in discussion and team debates. The platform enhances dynamic interactions not only among students but also with professors, by enabling teachers to give much deeper and personalized feedback.

The school is also known for merit-based admission process that doesn’t discriminate on things like age, race or country of origin. Last year, Minerva took in 200 students out of more than 23,000 applicants from 70 countries around the world.

The students conduct joint projects with global companies like Google, Amazon and Uber to learn to apply their knowledge. An official from a venture capital firm that joined the Series C funding said that it is meaningful that Korean venture firms invested in the global private education industry estimated to be worth about 400 trillion won ($339.2 billion).

By Park Jae-young and Choi Mira

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