Shanghai-headquartered edtech company, iTutorGroup, announced it has hired Zhengrong Tang as it Chief Technology Officer, who will be in charge of strategic planning, R&D, innovation, resource allocation, management and more. Tang is a heavy-hitter in the Chinese tech scene, but joins iTutorGroup after abruptly leaving his post as CTO of Tuniu — a Nasdaq-listed travel and leisure company — after a three-year stint. Prior to his time at Tuniu, and joining iTutorGroup, he held some impressive positions at Alibaba; acting as Director of TaoBao.com, Alipay, B2B and was CTO of Alibaba Japan. “I am honoured to join iTutorGroup and work with a team of elites who aim to redefine the education industry by encouraging innovation, building a collaborative platform and developing new technology with the goal of protecting customers’ learning opportunities,” Tang said in a statement. Also Read: IDG Capital’s Li Xiaojun is coming to Echelon Vietnam For iTutorGroup, the hire is another data point in a long line of evidence pointing towards an edtech industry that has quietly become a strength of the Chinese tech scene. According to CBInsights, the amount of investment in edtech in China has boomed. In 2011, the country saw 204 deals worth US$640 million. In 2015, the deal number was 442 for a whopping US$2.98 billion. Furthermore, 7 of those deals were worth over US$100 million. iTutorGroup is no exception to this trend, having raised a US$200 million Series C round in September 2015 from a slew of global investors. Also Read: Chinese K-12 education startup Zuoyebang raises US$60M funding Now, iTutorGroup is not just raising big rounds, it is pulling top talent to run the company. Before the last couple of years, the idea that the former Director of TaoBao would take his next job in edtech would seem unlikely (or the result of a personal affinity). Today, not only does the hire make sense, it should continue at other edtech startups as well-funded education companies can now afford the best of the best in China. In Southeast Asia, this is not the case as deals are far less common, and rarely, if ever, top the ‘seven-digit’ range. China has managed to create an ecosystem in which iTutorGroup can become a unicorn, and thus, can pull a guy like Tang to be its next CTO. — Copyright: gongmingphoto / 123RF Stock Photo The post China’s edtech space is booming, with former Alibaba exec joining an online tutoring startup iTutorGroup appeared first on e27.
Zhengrong Tang -based iTutorGroup has hired Shanghai as its CTO to manage strategic planning, research and development, innovation and other responsibilities. Previously, Tang held director positions in TaoBao.com, Tang and B2B and was CTO of Alibaba Japan ; he said he was “honoured” to begin work for iTutorGroup. Investment in the Chinese edtech space continues to boom, iTutorGroup raised over $100m in a series C round last year , which combined with seven other deals to take the total value of investment in the sector to over $100m in 2015 .