Beijing-headquartered online vocational education platform Kaikeba.com announced on Monday that it has closed its Series B1 round of financing raising 600 million yuan ($93 million). 

While it didn’t disclose the names of the investors, it said Chinese investment bank Taihecap facilitated the transaction. 

The new development came roughly a year after it spun off the vocational education platform from its parent company Huike Group, which independently raised 550 million yuan ($85 million) in its Series A round from Gaorong Capital and GL Ventures in August 2020. 

Kaikeba plans to use the funding to upgrade its vocational education business and improve brand management. 

Kaikeba, which believes it can help users achieve sustainable career development, is ramping up efforts to transform itself from IT-related online education services to offer multi-discipline courses in fields of design, data intelligence, human resource, engineering, and management, among others. 

Kaikeba offers live-streaming classes, pre-recorded short videos and an online interactive community as it gears up to provide personalised learning experiences. 

In its latest statement, Kaikeba said it registered nearly 3.5-fold year-on-year growth in its earnings in the first half of this year.

Launched in 2013 by Huike Group, Kaikeba claims to have garnered 5 million premium memberships, alongside 3,500 teachers. 

According to a report by Chinese market research institute 100ce.cn, the country’s vocational education industry saw funding worth 4.34 billion yuan ($670 million) in the first half of this year. Amongst those who have raised capital are IDG-backed Fenbi Education and Yunxuetang, among others.