YZi Labs, the venture firm formerly known as Binance Labs, has made its inaugural foray into the AI software sector, spearheading an $11 million seed round for VideoTutor. This AI-powered education platform, founded by 20-year-old Silicon Valley entrepreneur Kai Zhao, aims to revolutionize learning by transforming any question into a personalized, animated lesson.
The investment marks a significant strategic pivot for YZi Labs, which announced its broadened focus earlier this year. The seed round saw participation from a consortium of notable investors, including JinQiu Fund (affiliated with ByteDance), Baidu Ventures, Amino Capital, and BridgeOne Capital.
VideoTutor has rapidly gained traction since its May 2025 launch, attracting over 20,000 users and generating more than 20,000 videos within its first 10 days. The platform has also received over 1,000 API integration requests from schools and learning platforms, underscoring its potential to address a widespread need.
Positioning itself as an “AI Education Agent,” VideoTutor leverages a large language model (LLM) combined with a Manim-based rendering pipeline. This innovative approach allows for the precise visualization of complex topics, from intricate equations and diagrams to scientific concepts, delivered through animated and voice-guided lessons.
Dr. Jing Xiong, AI Investment Director at YZi Labs and a former Google Gemini engineer, highlighted VideoTutor’s technological edge. “VideoTutor’s hybrid AI model significantly outperforms diffusion-based video tools by ensuring semantic precision and visual clarity at substantially lower costs,” said Dr. Xiong. She further noted that the company’s proprietary Layout Manager and fault-tolerant LLM loop enable faster and more accurate video generation compared to competitors.
VideoTutor’s mission is to democratize high-quality tutoring, making it accessible to all students. The platform addresses a critical gap in education, as over 85% of US students cannot afford traditional tutoring, which typically costs $60–$90 per hour. Currently, VideoTutor’s offerings span K–12 education, SAT/ACT preparation, STEM subjects, and language learning.
The newly secured seed funding will be instrumental in fueling VideoTutor’s aggressive research and development initiatives and accelerating its global expansion. Plans include enhancing its AI animation engine, scaling infrastructure to meet growing demand, and forging partnerships with educational institutions across North America and Europe.
“We received over ten term sheets for this round, but ultimately chose YZi Labs as our lead investor because we share the same core belief: education should be personalized, affordable, and accessible to all,” stated Kai Zhao, founder of VideoTutor.
This investment follows another significant move by YZi Labs, which recently led a $50 million seed round for Better Payment Network (BPN). BPN is building stablecoin-based payment rails to streamline global settlements, reflecting YZi Labs’ broader strategy of focusing on CeDeFi (Centralized Decentralized Finance) infrastructure for emerging markets.
