(from EdSurge) With the global market for private tutoring projected to reach $227 billion by 2022, venture capitalists and other deep-pocketed investors are raising big bucks to build software platforms and apps, hire more teachers and add more subjects. Tutoring companies based in the U.S. and China are among those to have raised several hundred million dollars in the last few months alone.
The latest high-profile story involves Varsity Tutors, which a student at Washington University started in 2007. From those humble beginnings, the company shifted to online tutoring in 2013 and now has 40,000 tutors covering 1,000 subjects, along with a mobile app that promises to match a learner with an expert in 15 seconds. In the last few years, the company has raised $107 million. Students pay by the hour, typically purchasing blocks of time that work out to $60 to $70 an hour. Vetted tutors, who are independent contractors, typically pocket less than half but are drawn by the flexibility of an online scheduling system and access to English-speaking students as far away as China and South Korea.
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