Ambow Education Group said yesterday it has secured a $54 million investment, a sign of growing venture capital interest in the nation's education sector.

It's the country's biggest VC investment in education - more than the combined total of three deals in the sector announced last month.

Macquarie Bank Group led the deal, supported by existing investors CID Capital, Cisco Systems and new investor Avenue Capital. China Renaissance Partners advised Ambow on the deal.

Ambow received its first round of VC investment of $10 million from JAFCO Investment, CID Capital and Cisco Systems in April 2006.

Funds will mainly be used for business expansion and mergers and acquisitions.

"It will enable us to move faster to integrate quality and traditional teaching resources as well as enhance the value chain of the education sector," said Huang Jin, founder and CEO of Ambow.

Education has become an increasingly popular target for international investors since 2006, when they began shifting away from the IT industry toward traditional and service sectors.

"Explosive growth and development has made education one of the hottest areas for VC, alongside media and hospitality," said Zhu Yun, managing director of the research center at Zero2IPO Group, a local venture capital and private equity service provider.

The size of the Ambow investment is likely to prompt further large-scale deals, Zhu said.

(China Daily October 10, 2007)