AI education unicorn Squirrel targets foreign markets with plans for mathematics, Mandarin lessons

Squirrel AI Learning, a Shanghai-based online after-school tutoring company, plans to expand into foreign markets in two years by developing an English-language curriculum for mathematics as well as Mandarin lessons for non-native speakers.

“Why mathematics and Chinese-language lessons? Because there are so many foreigners who want to learn Chinese and they do not have good solutions,” Joleen Liang, partner at Squirrel AI Learning, said in an interview last week in Hong Kong. “So we’re going to expand our market in two years.”

Squirrel, whose formal name is Shanghai Yixue Education Technology Co, provides personalised lessons for students from elementary to high school through both online courses and at bricks-and-mortar learning centres.

Prospective students are first put through a diagnostic test to assess which areas in the subject they are weak at. The artificial intelligence algorithms will then cater the tutoring to focus on the areas of weakness, reducing the amount of time spent on unneeded tutoring by 80 per cent, according to Liang.

The company now has about 2,000 physical locations across China, with the majority franchised to private owners. The curriculum is developed by its in-house team of 400 teachers, many of whom were public school teachers and tutors in after-school centres, Liang said.