Singapore-based startup Higgz Academia Technology is in discussions with potential investors to lift its $100 million valuation in a fresh funding round and capitalize on OpenAI’s ChatGPT phenomenon.

The tutoring app developer last raised US$20 million around two years ago from investors including Matrix Partners and Qiming Venture Partners, chief executive officer Joey Sun said in an interview. ChatGPT’s rise to prominence has prompted prospective backers to hold early discussions with Higgz about another round of similar size, Sun said. The firm is slated to embed OpenAI’s chatbot into its app next month. 

Founded in Beijing when Sun was an engineering student at Tsinghua University, the startup earlier focused on training algorithms for mathematical calculations and logical reasoning before settling on a business model. In 2021, Sun registered Higgz in Singapore and raised money for a learning app targeting high-school and university math in Western markets, where the online tutoring sector is less crowded than in China. 

Its TutorEva app, launched last July, lets users scan math problems and then get step-by-step solutions via text, drawings or vocal prompts. The app has so far attracted hundreds of thousands of monthly users, mostly in the US, according to 29-year-old Sun.

ChatGPT is propelling a wave of funding into artificial intelligence ventures, as startups from Beijing to Boston incorporate generative AI and large language models into their services.

Higgz also belongs to a rash of startups with Chinese roots turning outward for growth, after two years of regulatory crackdowns and Covid-induced consumption slumps hammered the world’s biggest internet market.

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Students now need to scan textbooks with their phones to input questions into TutorEva, but the app’s next version using OpenAI’s GPT-4 will give more humanlike responses, Sun said. His 80-person outfit plans to roll out subscriptions for customized math tutoring services this year and expand into more STEM subjects in 2024.

TutorEva is up against some deep-pocketed rivals. In March, Google got clearance from the European Union to acquire Croatian learning app Photomath. TutorEva also competes with Microsoft’s Mathsolver, a free tool on web and mobile. BLOOMBERG