Is KnowBox profitable in 2026?

No verified profitability data exists. KnowBox's last confirmed funding was a $150 million Series D that closed May 30, 2019, valuing it near $1 billion, and no new round or financial disclosure has surfaced since, per a July 22, 2026 valuation tracker showing no post-2019 data.

KnowBox is privately held. Its Series D closed May 30, 2019 with Alibaba Group, Bertelsmann Asia Investments, C Ventures, and Yunfeng Capital participating; TAL Education Group and Yunfeng Capital had earlier led a $100 million round on February 1, 2018.

Could AI replace KnowBox's core product?

Yes, largely already has. KnowBox's original value, photo-based homework grading and answer search, is now commodity capability offered by general LLM chat tools and rivals like Zuoyebang, while Yuanfudao shipped a rebuilt AI-native full-pipeline product, 小猿AI, in June 2026.

Is KnowBox still a $1 billion unicorn in 2026?

That valuation is unrefreshed. KnowBox's last known post-money valuation of roughly $1 billion dates to its May 2019 Series D, and a July 22, 2026 tracker confirms no post-2019 valuation or trading data has been recorded since.

Who is KnowBox's biggest competitor?

Yuanfudao (猿辅导). In June 2026 it rebranded its consumer products into an AI-native full-pipeline platform called 小猿AI covering ages 3 to 18, directly overlapping KnowBox's K-12 segment with a more current, unified AI product.

Has KnowBox raised any funding recently?

No confirmed round has been reported since its roughly $150 million Series D closed May 30, 2019. A funding tracker dated July 22, 2026 explicitly shows no post-2019 valuation or financing data for the company.

China · China

KnowBox

China K-12 edtech app for homework grading, exercises, and teacher/parent tools.

Protection under test

Assessed 29 July 2026 · Evidence as of 29 July 2026

Something worth protecting exists and is being tested right now.

On the recordSince 29 July 2026 · Checkable from H1 2027 · Every call on the record Checkpoint: Window closes for KnowBox to raise fresh funding or ship an AI-native relaunch matching Yuanfudao's cadence

The call

KnowBox still carries a 2019 $1B tag while its homework-grading core gets copied by free LLM tools and Yuanfudao ships a newer AI product.

KnowBox is a Chinese homework-tutoring company that works with schools and has government licensing to operate. It claimed to have real school partnerships and student data, which would normally be hard for competitors to copy. However, the company stopped updating its business in 2019 with a $1 billion valuation that was never refreshed. Rival Yuanfudao just launched a full artificial intelligence tutoring system in 2026 that works like this: it diagnoses what a student doesn't know, teaches them, gives practice problems, tests them, and reviews their mistakes. Meanwhile, cheap AI chat tools like ChatGPT and Zhipu can already grade homework and find answers instantly, so KnowBox's core homework-grading product is no longer special. The picture changes if KnowBox raises new money with proof that the company is still growing, or if they quickly rebuild their entire product using modern AI to match what Yuanfudao just shipped. If neither happens by mid 2027, KnowBox will likely continue shrinking.

Why

AI pressure: General LLM photo-homework and answer-search tools. Free LLM chat apps now do photo-based homework grading, eating KnowBox's core product for free. Could AI do the core job? Yes, likely.

Bigger players: Yuanfudao (猿辅导) with its 2026 小猿AI full AI-native rebuild. Yuanfudao shipped a diagnose-teach-practice-test loop in 2026 while KnowBox has not shown a matching relaunch. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.

What protects it. A licensed-tutoring status and claimed in-school distribution that, if real, block casual entrants but remain unverified at scale.

What would change this call

KnowBox announces a new funding round with disclosed user/revenue numbers by 2027. Would show investors still believe in the moat and the business is growing, not underwater.
KnowBox ships an AI-native diagnose-teach-practice-test relaunch within 6 months. Would show it can match Yuanfudao's 2026 product cadence instead of falling further behind.
Ministry of Education issues new licensed-tutoring or school-channel rules. Would show whether KnowBox's regulatory/distribution moat still holds or gets eroded.

Key numbers

$150M Series D led by Alibaba and Yunfeng Capital (2019-05-30)
No new equity round disclosed since 2019 (2026-07-22)
Corporate domain draws only ~47K monthly visits (2026-06-25)

Named risks

No confirmed new funding round since May 2019, suggesting equity may be underwater. Severity: high
Core homework-grading product commoditized by general LLMs and rival AI-native tools. Severity: high
China's 2021 double reduction policy could further restrict licensed 小盒课堂 tutoring business. Severity: medium
Very low corporate domain traffic (~47,000 monthly uniques as of June 2026) signals weak consumer reach. Severity: medium

Rivals, as read in July 2026

Rival	Direction	Evidence
Yuanfudao	losing to	Shipped AI-native full-pipeline platform 小猿AI covering ages 3-18 as of June 17, 2026
Zuoyebang	losing to	Claims a 1.9 billion question database, historically a dominant edtech unicorn alongside Yuanfudao
TAL Education Group	contesting	Former 2018 investor and much larger listed incumbent in China's tutoring sector
General LLM chat tools	losing to	Commoditized homework photo-grading and answer-search, KnowBox's original core value

Questions people ask

Is KnowBox profitable in 2026?: No verified profitability data exists. KnowBox's last confirmed funding was a $150 million Series D that closed May 30, 2019, valuing it near $1 billion, and no new round or financial disclosure has surfaced since, per a July 22, 2026 valuation tracker showing no post-2019 data.
Who owns KnowBox?: KnowBox is privately held. Its Series D closed May 30, 2019 with Alibaba Group, Bertelsmann Asia Investments, C Ventures, and Yunfeng Capital participating; TAL Education Group and Yunfeng Capital had earlier led a $100 million round on February 1, 2018.
Could AI replace KnowBox's core product?: Yes, largely already has. KnowBox's original value, photo-based homework grading and answer search, is now commodity capability offered by general LLM chat tools and rivals like Zuoyebang, while Yuanfudao shipped a rebuilt AI-native full-pipeline product, 小猿AI, in June 2026.
Is KnowBox still a $1 billion unicorn in 2026?: That valuation is unrefreshed. KnowBox's last known post-money valuation of roughly $1 billion dates to its May 2019 Series D, and a July 22, 2026 tracker confirms no post-2019 valuation or trading data has been recorded since.
Who is KnowBox's biggest competitor?: Yuanfudao (猿辅导). In June 2026 it rebranded its consumer products into an AI-native full-pipeline platform called 小猿AI covering ages 3 to 18, directly overlapping KnowBox's K-12 segment with a more current, unified AI product.
Has KnowBox raised any funding recently?: No confirmed round has been reported since its roughly $150 million Series D closed May 30, 2019. A funding tracker dated July 22, 2026 explicitly shows no post-2019 valuation or financing data for the company.

Timeline

2026-07-29China's Moonshot AI hits $35 billion valuation, showing capital flowing to AI-native players
2026-07-10MiniMax raises HK$16 billion via equity and convertible bond sale
2026-06-25knowbox.cn shows only about 47,000 monthly unique visitors
2026-06-17Yuanfudao rebrands into AI-native full-pipeline product 小猿AI
2025-11-17小盒学生 student app receives incremental bug-fix update
2023-09-26KnowBox releases self-developed LLM product Xiaohe Qisi OS
2023-05-31CEO Liu Ye publicly discusses LLM strategy for tutoring
2022-07-20Xiaohe smart learning tablet gets AI upgrade
2021-11-16China's double reduction policy crackdown reshapes edtech sector
2019-05-30KnowBox closes ~$150 million Series D, valuation reaches ~$1 billion

Revision history

29 July 2026

First assessed. Protection under test. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.

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