BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)--This week, global education company VIPKid announced a strategic partnership with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), one of the most influential educational publishers in the world. Together, the companies will utilize HMH’s highly regarded reading and language arts curricula to develop learning programs for VIPKid’s platform, making VIPKid the first online education company to acquire these rights from HMH in China. Through this partnership, VIPKid becomes the exclusive partner for three programs in China. Together, the companies will develop targeted educational experiences for Chinese students. In addition, VIPKid announced this week its Global Curriculum Development Plan encompassing strategic alliances with over 20 educational institutions.
As part of this cooperation, VIPKid will obtain the online tuition rights to three major series of HMH award-winning curricula, including Journeys, Escalate English, and Collections. Journeys is currently used by 6.7 million primary school students in the United States, while Collections is used widely in middle and high school classrooms. VIPKid plans to launch its Super course based on HMH’s Journeys and Collections. Super, aimed at ages 5-18, covers core competencies such as language development and subject acquisition to enhance students’ long-term ability to learn.
Since its founding in 1832, HMH’s educational materials have reached over 50 million students in more than 150 countries. HMH’s Senior Vice President of Global Markets Samuel Bonfante explained that HMH chose to partner with VIPKid because of its leading position in the Chinese market and global reach. “We believe that cooperation between VIPKid and HMH will better meet the needs of students in China and around the world and will lead to excellent learning outcomes. We’re excited to partner with such an innovative and mission-driven company.”
VIPKid also announced its Global Curriculum Development Plan that outlines VIPKid’s goal to partner with over 20 leading educational institutions in the next five years to create content that is both global and local in nature for Chinese children. Regarding the importance of curriculum development, VIPKid Founder and CEO Cindy Mi said, “Our goal is to help break down cultural barriers and create learning materials that will teach children to see themselves as global citizens. Today we’re excited to take a major step forward through our partnership with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and we will continue to partner with industry leaders to develop innovative curriculum so that all children can find joy in learning.”
About VIPKid
VIPKid is a global education technology company that connects children with the world’s best teachers for real-time online English immersion learning. VIPKid’s mission is to inspire and empower every child for the future. VIPKid believes that education is not one-size-fits-all, rather all students are unique and the world is within their reach when connected with great teachers capable of personalizing learning and sparking curiosity.
Founded in 2013 and formally launched in 2014, VIPKid has become China’s market-leading online education startup, attracting investment from Tencent, Sequoia Capital, Yunfeng Capital, Coatue Management, Matrix Partners, Sinovation Ventures, Learn Capital, Northern Light VC, Bryant Stibel, among others. The VIPKid platform currently connects over 500,000 paying students with over 60,000 teachers in the US and Canada.
For more information, please visit: www.vipkid.com.
