Xueba100
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Xueba100.com was a Chinese one-on-one online tutoring platform founded in 2013 by Zhang Kailei. It partnered with instructors to design customized K-12 curricula and test-prep courses, riding China's online-education boom — it raised $100 million in 2017. In late December 2020 it ran out of money and ceased most operations.
02 / Xueba100 FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
The collapse spotlighted how hard it is to run profitable one-on-one tutoring: high teacher and customer-acquisition costs against thin margins, in a cutthroat market where most new entrants lost money. When fundraising failed in late 2020, the cash ran out within weeks — offices went silent, managers became unreachable, and thousands of employees were left owed back wages while tens of thousands of families sought refunds of prepaid tuition.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Founded
Zhang Kailei founded Xueba100.com, a one-on-one online tutoring platform for K-12 students.
- Major funding
Raised $100 million, one of the largest edtech rounds of 2017.
- Collapse
Halted most operations in late December 2020 after failing to raise new funds; offices went silent and parents gathered at the Beijing headquarters demanding refunds.
- Giveaway attempt
Founder Zhang Kailei publicly offered to give the company away, asking 100+ franchisees to find acquirers and offering the quiz database and class system free to any major tutoring firm that would take over students.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Ran out of money and ceased most operations around January 1, 2021, after failing to raise new funds.
- 02
Thousands of employees were left jobless and owed back wages; tens of thousands of students and parents sought refunds of prepaid tuition.
- 03
Founder Zhang Kailei offered the company's quiz database and class system free to any major tutoring firm willing to take over students; any sale proceeds were earmarked for salaries and teacher fees.
- 04
No audited loss figure was ever published; unpaid wages and refund liabilities are not a loss measure, so loss_amount is left null.