YZi Labs, managing assets over 10 billion dollars globally and associated with the founder and former CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, led a seed investment round of 11 million dollars in an AI-powered educational initiative, VideoTutor. This round, also supported by prominent funds like JinQiu Fund linked to ByteDance and Baidu Ventures, marked YZi Labs’ first AI software investment since broadening its investment scope earlier this year.
From a 20-Year-Old Entrepreneur to a Global “Education Agent”
VideoTutor, an educational technology product, was founded in Silicon Valley by 20-year-old entrepreneur Kai Zhao. The company merges large language models (LLM) with a Manim-based visual production infrastructure to transform each inquiry into personalized, animated, and narrated tutorial videos. The aim of Changpeng Zhao and his team is to level the playing field for millions of students lacking access to quality private tutoring.
In the United States alone, over 2 million students prepare for the SAT annually, facing private tutoring costs ranging from 60 to 90 dollars per hour, making it inaccessible for many. VideoTutor aims to remove this financial barrier. Launched in May 2025, the platform attracted 20,000 users and over 20,000 videos in its first 10 days. Additionally, over 1,000 educational institutions worldwide have applied to integrate the VideoTutor API into their systems.
Technical Superiority and Vision for Democratic Learning
Dr. Jing Xiong, Director of AI Investment at YZi Labs and former Google Gemini engineer, emphasized that VideoTutor stands out technically from other video production initiatives. According to Xiong, while many rely on diffusion models, VideoTutor’s combination of language models and Manim-based structures provides both speed and accuracy.
The company plans to utilize the new investment to accelerate R&D, bolster the AI animation engine, and expand the engineering team. Their regional expansion plans include targeting Canada, the United Kingdom, and other global markets.
Founder Kai Zhao described their partnership with YZi Labs as part of their vision to democratize access to opportunities. VideoTutor, receiving the highest offers among investors, chose YZi Labs, reaffirming their commitment to providing personalized, affordable, and accessible education.
