Posted on

Go-Jek moves PayLater offline to help people pay for goods monthly

Ovo, the finance service used by Grab, launched a similar service in early May

Go-Pay, the payment service for Indonesian ride-hailing app Go-Jek, announced that it will facilitate a mobile credit service to brick-and-mortar stores starting next month. By doing so, Go-Pay said that it seeks to lay the foundation for a broader financial business, as reported by Nikkei Asian Review.

The mobile credit service — called PayLater — allows users to pay for transactions on the Go-Jek platform at the end of the month.

The startup has already offered financial products to drivers and merchants alike, including savings accounts and housing loans, through its local bank partners.

“The addition of PayLater as an option is to provide a wide array of financial products to users, a segment that it has left untouched,” said Go-Pay CEO Aldi Haryopratomo.

Haryopratomo also added that this service will allow users who are unbanked and never had access to these types of financial services to grow their credit history and move up the economic ladder.

Launched in September, PayLater was initially meant for food delivery. It has since expanded into other Go-Jek services like ride-hailing. By July this year, the ride-hailer will give users the option of using PayLater at more than 300,000 offline locations, as well as at online merchants that accept Go-Pay.

Also Read: Can these blockchain products make a name as social media alternatives?

Not all users would be allowed access to PayLater, as it will be available only to users approved by Go-Jek’s credit analytics. The decision will be based on various data such as transaction history.

The company said that the credit limit and monthly fee vary among users, with most are charged IDR25,000 (US$2) with a credit limit of IDR500,000 (US$35.05).

To mitigate its credit risk in the lending service, Go-Jek partnered with local peer-to-peer lender Findaya.

Ovo, the payment company used by rival Grab, extended a similar service to offline merchants in early May.

The post Go-Jek moves PayLater offline to help people pay for goods monthly appeared first on e27.

Posted on

From space stations to crime scenes: The remote AR revolution

Viva la AR revolution!

Augmented reality is a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a users view of the real world. Ultimately, it allows users to view through a screen, what isn’t actually there in real life, and essentially closes the gap between imagination and reality.

Remote AR — often dubbed as multiuser — allows users to share the same AR experience from different physical surfaces and surroundings. This technology has changed the way humans interact and projects insights into the future of communication.

With a little help from the internet, AR experiences can be shared between users, across the globe from mobile devices- truly revolutionising human interaction.

Erasing distance

It is clear to see how time and monetary resources can be saved through the effective use of remote AR. It enables multiple users to access and report on the vision of one key user. In the workplace, an AR project can be accessed by the entire team, thousands of miles apart, without having to be present.

Multiuser AR effectively erases the distance between each user and places them together in a virtual room.

Within this virtual room, users can connect via live video or audio, using any compatible technology device; be it a smartphone, laptop or tablet, usually wearing glasses as the interface.

Also Read: Zuellig Pharma buys digital medical assistant startup Klinify

Its 3D content generates a rich and contextualised experience that helps to eliminate confusion and misjudgement in joint projects. Despite the location or movement of the user, project annotations remain and ensures information is always retrievable.

Moving with the molecules

Shaking up the gaming industry, AR technology has paved the way for a whole new generation of collaborative apps and games. Look no further than Pokemon GO, which introduced mainstream gamers to the potentials of AR technology.

It set the stage for remote AR and supercharged the gaming immersion level to new heights.

Following suit, tech companies such as Facebook and Apple are moving towards fulfilling the AR capacity in their market. Apple has been engaged with generating new AR tools for the development community, whilst Facebook is adamant to make AR available to the masses.

Remote AR has recently found its place in education.

It invites a deeper level of understanding of what can be complex subjects and brings to life what can often be dull theories and formulas. In an effort to encourage imaginative thought and engagement in the sciences, the University of Helskini, Finland, has used remote AR to allow children to virtually interact with the molecule movement in gases, gravity, sound waves and aeroplane physics.

Results have shown an improvement in the level of learning of under-performing children.

Virtual bones

The healthcare and medical technology industries are warming to the use of AR projects and applications. It has been used by some hospitals in physiotherapy and physical rehabilitation, by mapping a digital image directly onto the motions people perform as part of their therapy.

By watching themselves in tandem with the demonstration, patients can refine their movements and view the AR images remotely.

The practice of remote surgery operations have become increasingly common. A surgical team at the University of Alabama performed a remote surgery miles away from the operating table. They used AR to point to and guide the hands of the on-sight surgeon. This use of multiuser AR has given rise to the potential prospects for better healthcare in the third-world.

Remote AR has been of particular use in medical education. Students and teachers are using it to pinpoint precisely different types of bone while showing relevant AR information on the screen. It has contributed to the movement away from heavy textbooks, towards a lighter virtual learning environment.

Meet your colleagues virtually

Remote AR is also a game-changer for employee training and development. Sandia National Laboratories is working with augmented reality as a tool to improve security training. Users on-site patrol vulnerable areas containing nuclear weapons or nuclear materials, and are trained to deal with crisis using real-life examples projected through AR.

Additionally, what could be a long and costly training process is maid relatively cheap, with the use of stand-alone AR headsets.

Beam, the digital and design marketing agency, has built an AR-based employee onboarding programme. Newcomers to the company simply pop on an AR headset and can walk around the office setting off strategically located AR trigger points that enable them to gain knowledge about the business, facilities and employees.

Projection-based augmented reality is also emerging as a new way to cast virtual elements in the real world without the use of bulky headgear or glasses.

Furthermore, startup companies, Lampix and Lightform, have developed projection-based augmented reality for use in the boardroom, retail displays, hospitality, digital signage and more.

The open world becomes the real world

Remote AR has gone so far in reshaping the boundaries, it has helped to reimagine our conception of cyberspace, creating Magicverse. Developed by Magic Leap, it is a simulation of reality, not unlike The Matrix and other similar worlds as portrayed in sci-fi books and movies.

It’s a utopian perspective and aims to mirror real cities and environments that can be experienced and entered with AR glasses. Using cloud-based AR, it’s a deeply ambitious project, designed to create a whole ecology and community around this form of computing.

But it goes further than a novelty or game, Magic Leap is partnering with a wide raft of companies, to develop these AR worlds with practical uses in mind. These have been extended to making healthcare and economic opportunities available to everyone.

The ultimate aim is to develop Magicverse to a point where people can transport to different cities, for instance from Paris to Moscow or New York to London and make valuable human interactions, from patient-doctor relations to employee-employer relations and interviews. This is the enormous potential of remote AR.

While today’s usage of remote AR tends to be more prosaic it is no less revolutionary. For instance, LEGO AR-Studio offers six virtual app sets that tap into the popularity of games like Pokemon Go, by bringing to life elements on the table and living room floor. It combines interactive worlds and characters to create a gold brick hunt.

This is a gaming trailblazer and is set to open up the world of open-world gaming to new levels of interactivity. Undoubtedly, it won’t be long before these AR open world games begin incorporating advertising into the games. Advertisers will potentially be able to reach millions of gamers, to meet their audiences’ specific needs for information, convenience and entertainment.

LEGO has continued to stretch the limits of remote AR, by partnering with Snapchat to launch a shop with no clothes in it. That’s right a shop with nothing more than a large plastic plinth emblazoned with a giant Snapcode.

A user simply whips out their smartphone, frames the Snapcode in the phone’s camera and clicks. They can then access a virtual shop that features a range of exclusive clothing products, along with a LEGO bouncer should a virtual shopper get any virtual ideas.

It may seem gimmicky but LEGO is exploring the technology to launch its first-ever limited-edition range of adult clothes. It is also attempting to explore how the digital and physical worlds can interact.

And as we know where one company goes others often tend to follow.

It would seem that we are in some remote AR industrialisation phase of human history. BMW has incorporated augmented reality into its automobile design process. Engineers in different locations work collaboratively on engine design and development, saving significant amounts of time and effort, particularly during the early development stages of new vehicle models.

In this AR environment, the functions of the vehicle and its interior designs can be modelled faster and more economically. Engineers can see if there are certain engine components that should be changed and how engine parts are working together.

Crime scenes and space stations

Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, has been working with first responders of a crime scene, to incorporate AR tools in the investigation process. Handheld AR system allows on-scene investigators to work with remote forensic teams to minimise the potential for contamination and enhance investigative procedures.

Also Read: Go-Jek moves PayLater offline to help people pay for goods monthly

In Finland, the VTT Technical Research Center recently developed an AR tool for the European Space Agency (ESA) for astronauts to perform real-time equipment monitoring in space. The precarious threat of these tasks is minimised with the use of AR that prepares astronauts with in-depth practice, by coordinating the activities with experts.

The tool enables the visualisation of telemetry data from equipment and other systems on board the space station, such as diagnostics and maintenance data, life cycle, radiation, pressure, or temperature, both in space and on the ground and displayed on AR glasses.

Augmented Reality has come a long way in a short period of time, and remote AR is the driving force that is maintaining its momentum. Its ability to bring together thousands of users across different industries has already reshaped the way humans interact, work and collaborate.

Yet, excitingly, this revolution has only just begun.

e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

 

The post From space stations to crime scenes: The remote AR revolution appeared first on e27.

Posted on

Has HealthTech innovation caught up with parents’ needs?

Danone Nutricia Research looks to address both age-old and emerging health challenges with tech solutions

Allergy among children is on the rise and this put parents on edge every time they dine out with their little ones. This is but one of the many challenges facing parents globally. Parents want to give their child the best start in life and are in a relentless search for digital solutions that can take the stress and anxiety out of parenting.

While digital solutions targeting parents already exist today, few are scientifically or clinically-substantiated. This is because scientific and clinical research are not only capital intensive but also requires highly-specialised skillsets and tools.

Collaboration among startups and larger corporations is critical in driving innovations in HealthTech forward, especially when addressing vulnerable populations. The good news for startups operating in Southeast Asia is its proximity to Singapore, a pro-innovation country that provides easy access to multinational corporations (MNCs) who have set up innovation hubs in the country. These MNCs have the capital to invest in innovative solutions and the right network to test, scale and market these innovations to.

Take Danone Nutricia Research, as an example. This global research and innovation organisation has a team of 50 technologists and scientists based out of its Precision Nutrition D-Lab who are actively building scientifically-substantiated digital solutions to empower consumers including parents to make better nutritional decisions.

With over 100 years of scientific expertise, Danone Nutricia Research has an extensive network of highly-specialized labs and clinical research teams across the globe which startups, scientists and research institutes can potentially tap on.

Also read: How Echelon plans to FORGE corporate-startup relationships

Equally, Danone Nutricia Research recognizes the value that startups bring to the organisation – creativity, agility, speed of innovation, new perspectives and other complementary skillsets. They adopt an open innovation model where they actively collaborate with startups through partnerships and hackathons, to identify, build, test and turn new ideas into real-world solution that can be rolled out to a global audience.

One of their most recent initiative is the ASEAN Tech Awards 2019 where startups and teams of technologists from the ASEAN region are invited to submit innovative technologies/tools that can help parents enhance the detection and tracking of allergens based on adverse skin reactions.

Applications are open until 7th June, and the finalists will be announced on the 10th. Interested startups can check out the application criteria and timelines on the ASEAN Tech Awards 2019 website.

Danone Nutricia Research was among the companies that e27 partnered with in Echelon Asia Summit 2019 under FORGE, our corporate-startup matching programme. Through FORGE, Danone Nutricia explored possibilities in engaging startups across the region for innovation in healthtech.

—-

Photo: Unsplash

The post Has HealthTech innovation caught up with parents’ needs? appeared first on e27.

Posted on

Blockchain will force banks to change their feudal mindset

At the moment, banks have all the control and all the power, and users have very low power. With smart contracts, it will turn around, say experts

“Banking is necessary, banks are not”: Bill Gates.

As the world grappled with the chilling effects of the economic crisis of 2008 and with the collapse of behemoths like Lehman Brothers, people began to lose faith in the banking industry. But with no alternatives, they were forced to continue to depend on traditional banks for all their banking needs.

But as the crisis unfolded, several people had already begun to ask a question: what option do people have if banks are not to be trusted?

A man (or a group of people) named Satoshi Nakamoto came up with an answer: a peer-to-peer, ‘trustless’ electronic cash system based on a technology called blockchain.

For the uninitiated, blockchain is a decentralised technology; a global network of computers uses this to jointly manage the database that records cryptocurrency transactions. That cryptocurrencies are managed by a network (not any one central authority) is what makes its distinctive from banks. What it means is that blockchain removes the need for an intermediary for transactions between two entities/people.

As we know, a bank’s main function is to act as a trusted intermediary between people or entities. So can blockchain replace banks?

Expert speak (Part I): The biggest disruption in blockchains and cryptocurrencies is yet to come

As blockchain proliferates, many in the banking industry are afraid that banks may become redundant, or at least their role will diminish to a great extent, in the long term.

But is this concern justified? Is blockchain an existential threat to banks? What will be the role of the bank once blockchain becomes prevalent?

Banks, more than just an intermediary

As is it, banks have many functions beyond intermediating transactions. They facilitate trust, ensure regulatory compliance, structure financial products, provide financial advise to customers, etc. As a key component of the financial system, banks allocate funds from savers to borrowers in an efficient manner, and these financial services help to make the overall economy more efficient. They facilitate trade and finance.

To put it succinctly, banks — which have been around since the early ages — will still be relevant in future.

Having said that, the advent of cutting-edge technologies is pushing banks to change the way they operate. While they have been able to survive many revolutions in the past, they cannot remain aloof to blockchain, one of 21st century’s biggest revolutions.

“The central role of banks in the entire ecosystem has been to play the trusted source of your funds and an ultimate source of truth for the economic system,” said Gaurang Torvekar, Co-founder and CEO of Indorse, an ethereum-based social network for professionals. “Blockchain removes the need for intermediaries in the transaction process. It removes the need for a “trusted third party”, which is more often than not a bank.”

Also Read: Singapore social network Indorse lets users control their data, raises US$9M in ICO

“Having said that, it’s also important to know that although bank as an institution is not as nimble and fast-paced to adopt the latest changes as a startup, they have nonetheless survived and adapted, albeit slowly, to several changes over the decades. Banks have already started adopting blockchain technology as a means to make their processes more efficient, and will continue to do so as the technology evolves,” he noted.

Although it is true that banks will slowly adapt and embrace the new technology, there is a vast majority of the world population that still remains unbanked. This is where blockchain gains weight. The promise of blockchain, and the ability to remove the need for a central trusted party, will take the technology a long way towards this. A number of technology companies in Asia, such as OmiseGo, WeTrust and Humaniq, are already leveraging it to access savings and credits which are essential building blocks of the economy.

“Several new blockchain companies are also starting to look at financial inclusion as a viable market and concentrating on the bottom of the pyramid in a bid to find their niche,” he elaborated.

Pankaj Jain, a blockchain expert and former Partner at 500 Startups, could not agree more. In his view, there will continue to be a need for banks even with blockchain and cryptocurrencies, but their services need to evolve with time.

“Most people feel a justifiable amount of frustration when they can’t access their money sitting in a bank and do what they need to with it because of restrictions like daily withdrawal limits. Cryptocurrencies in particular allow individuals, groups, and businesses to retake control of their money to do with as they need when they need to. However, businesses and individuals will continue to need trusted counterparties for a variety of services e.g. medical equipment leasing, large corporate loans, etc. Banks will still be required for many existing services and I believe many banks will evolve to provide new services, not yet imagined, for a blockchain and cryptocurrency world,” Jain said.

Denial of cryptocurrency will not help

As Jain mentioned, most of banks and financial services businesses have already started understanding the need to evolve and have begun projects testing various solutions on blockchain. Operational services — from trade settlement to credit reporting to bank-to-bank transfers and escrow — are services banks are already experimenting with on this technology.

“I believe the challenge exists when cryptocurrencies are added to the mix. Most banks are in denial of cryptocurrencies. However, cryptocurrencies are already serving as a store of value and as a medium of exchange. The banks, like the telcos before them with the internet, will continue to push for regulations through deep-pocketed lobbying that will protect their monopolies for a time, but unless they begin to embrace cryptocurrencies and start thinking about building businesses on top of cryptocurrencies, I fear that many banks may never quite move into the 21st century and a great deal of them will never make it into the 22nd century,” Jain observed.

Amidst the cryptocurrency and blockchain buzz in the market, several banks are already on their way to embracing the new tech. Big names like Singapore-based OCBC Bank have started the process of implementing it to streamline the entire banking process.

Said Altona Widjaja, Vice President (Fintech and Innovation Group) of OCBC Bank: “2018 is likely to be the year for blockchain technology to be adopted in the financial market more pervasively. It will impact the way banks operate beyond its potential to facilitate payments, but also in system efficiencies, de-centralising networks, and securing information exchange.”

Also Read: Which countries support cryptocurrencies, and what is their impact on the blockchain community?

Globally, many industries – including governments – have taken a keen interest in the blockchain technology and are experimenting with various applications. Where blockchain is different from other emerging technologies is that it cannot be developed in silos. The key benefits of a secure, permissioned, open architecture can only be realised with scale, and with that, the rules for participants of the network has to be clear.

“Trade finance,” Widjaja underscores, “is one of the most promising use cases for blockchain technology, with its cross-border nature, inherent counter-party risk, and need for secure payments. How blockchain is used for that segment will be quite telling for its growth. It would still take time for the game-changing promise of the technology to be realised, and early adopters of the technology are more likely to gain a competitive advantage.”

OCBC has been experimenting with this technology with success, and it is arguably first bank in Southeast Asia to leverage the technology for both local and cross-border transfers. This new-age tech has made payments more secure, faster, more transparent and less costly, he said.

“We also played a key role as part of the first consortium in Southeast Asia (together with HSBC, MUFG and IMDA) to develop a prototype for a Know Your Customer (KYC) blockchain. This development will contribute towards blockchain’s use to secure financial processes while combating anti-money laundering (AML) and the financing of terrorism (CFT),” he explained.

Banks are inefficient and not environmental-friendly

It is beyond doubt that in the current setup, banks wield excessive control and power. They are the backbone of any country and they closely work with central banks in their respective countries. While banks don’t want to be left out in the race to adapt to the changing environments, most banks are exercising caution.

“It is imperative on their part to adapt to the changing time and they should take new approaches to embrace the blockchain technology to avoid the Kodak moment. Those unwilling to accept and embrace tech will be gradually phased out,” said co-founder of an emerging blockchain startup on the condition of anonymity.

“Banks could use blockchain to streamline all its processes and become leaner. Coming from the banking industry, I know that there are too much works, processes and documentations within banks. It is an extremely inefficient and non-environment friendly industry. They need to create a blockchain processing unit to serve itself and other banks, and there are many new business model to explore. But the only question is: are they willing to learn and change?,” the person asked.

According to Philipp Pieper, Partner at Swarm Fund, an online platform aiming to bridge digital currency and real assets, while blockchain is posing a challenge, the death of banks is greatly exaggerated.

“There are areas where banks will face challenges. For instance, we are already seeing some use cases, such as trans-border remittance payments, where cryptocurrencies on the blockchain are doing a better job than banks, at a lower cost. Peer-to-peer lending is another very realistic use case, one where smart contracts could very effectively be used to codify agreements and terms between individuals,” he said.

But to bring retail consumer banking functions to the normal consumer using the blockchain will take much longer, because of the complexity of the user interface, experts feel. It will be a long time before transacting seamlessly will be easy enough for non-tech savvy customers to use it. Part of that is a technology challenge, and part of it is a challenge of working with or around the different gate keepers in the technology and banking space.

“In terms of short-term success, it is more interesting to look at specialty banking functions and infrastructure use cases. We are already seeing banks running blockchain trials for anything that crosses a border, such as intra-bank settlements and bills of exchange. Other specialty functions, such as securities settlements, merchant banking, and underwriting will benefit from efficiency gains and the transparency that result from using the blockchain,” said Pieper.

There are huge opportunities for the industry to gain efficiencies, but for that to be the case, it will require the players within the established banking system to create newly-designed services around how the model of blockchain works, while realising that the role of the services industry is changing.

From “to rule” to “to serve”

“Blockchain is a technology that empowers the individual. As such, it will force financial services to be more customer-focused. Thus, banks will have less of an opportunity to promote agendas that benefit them, but not their customers. In my view that’s probably a good thing, for consumers as well as the society,” Pieper observed.

Banks need to understand and get themselves educated more in this space, rather than read the news and educating themselves on the fud and get to know what blockchain can do for the banks.

“Before banks can do anything, they have to change their mindset from “to serve” rather than “to rule”. But it does take time. At the end of the day, the slow adoption within the banking system (including regulation) is due to the mindset differences, rather than the technology,” said Anson Zeall, Co-founder and CEO of CoinPip, a blockchain-powered money transfer service for businesses.

Dr. Julian Hosp, Co-founder & President of TenX, a platform that “makes cryptocurrencies spendable anytime anywhere, echoes similar views.

“It is a threat to bad banks, to those who don’t deliver good service and products,” he said. “I think people will still need banks. But at the moment, it’s very difficult for banks to use the blockchain to their advantage. In the future when blockchain will become faster and more scalable – it’s all about transparency. It’s about users understanding what it actually gets you do with the funds. And then obviously it’s also for interconnection so that banks can communicate faster and more accurately with other banks.

Obviously, banks are at an inflexion point. They need to embrace this tech as soon as possible to remain relevant in the market. While blockchain is going to shrink their space in the global financial system to a great extent, they can still survive with the adoption of the technology.

“If we go away from cryptocurrencies, the big thing is going to be the smart contracts. At the moment, banks have all the control, all the power and users have very low power. With smart contracts, it will turn around, so it will be a bilateral approach, bilateral respect. That’s where blockchains with smart contracts will be very important,” Hosp concluded.

The post Blockchain will force banks to change their feudal mindset appeared first on e27.

Posted on

How Solve Education wants to help a billion people

Rather than help 10,000 people make a billion dollars

Centuries of quality education has mothered technology into this world and now we see technology helping education reach higher levels of quality.

Edtech plays an incipient role in enhancing our intellectual capabilities to meet the demands of an ever-evolving world. Many governments, schools and big companies across the world have already invested heavily in its value.

However, even with such implementations in place, the socioeconomic gap continues to widen with the richest one per cent owning a very disproportionate 45 per cent of the world’s wealth.

People are beginning to accuse edtech of rubbing salt to the wound by promoting inequality since not every student has access to technology. And, making matters worse, is the fact that the majority of edtech companies target middle to upper-class students — whose parents can afford and want to pay for their services and high-end devices.

This leaves behind the kids at the bottom of the class-pyramid, which ironically makes up the largest part of our global population.

This was an issue Solve Education identified and is trying to re-solve by bringing free, engaging educational software to low-end phones through an app.

“Going digital can divide people, but at the same time, it can be an opportunity to bridge the socioeconomic gap — it depends on how we design edtech,” says Janine Teo, CEO of Solve Education, about education inequality.

Solve Education is a non-profit organisation that is building mobile games designed to help kids learn. Its flagship game, Dawn of Civilization, teaches people english while they build their own city.

Some of the main barriers edtech companies find with poorer communities is running a product that can function on substandard phones, support low to no internet connectivity and use small memory space.

Solve Education has been able to break down each of these barriers and has even incorporated a social-gaming element into the learning process.

Explaining this decision, Teo tells e27,

“Some of the kids out there do not have supportive parents or good quality teachers, so how do we get them to learn then? Since they spend most of their time on social media or gaming apps, we decided to make an app that can engage them in those elements as well.”

Also Read: Go-Jek moves PayLater offline to help people pay for goods monthly

According to UNESCO’s 2018 report, one out of five children do not go to school. Teo explains that the app was specially engineered to cater to that 20 per cent, which she herself has crossed paths with from over 40 countries of travel.

Her previous jobs in the hospitality sector landed her (literally) in many places across many oceans. Prior to that, she was a computer engineer based in Paris. Where Teo wanted to go, her life naturally followed — until it presented an obstacle in the form of a friend’s question.

“What’s your purpose in life?”

This friend, who is now the chairman of Solve Education, kindled some major introspection within Teo and she finally came to a conclusion that she would rather “help a billion helpless people than help 10,000 people make a billion dollars”.

Her previous jobs provided her plenty of insight and exposure to the marginalised, lower-class communities outside the sheltered bubble many of us are blessed to live in. This motivated her to switch careers and fulfil her purpose.

On why she chose to pursue her vision in the field of education, she shared that, “If we look at all the different challenges the world has today, we find that education is the main cause for them and yet, also the core element that can bring about a lot of changes”.

Today, Solve Education carries the torch for creating a world where all students can access quality education and gain confidence in their ability to learn. It is currently established in Indonesia, Singapore and India — the latter of which has at least 35 million children deprived of education.

Interestingly, the app has felt five times the retention rate for normal mobile games, which is an incredible feat for an educational game, given the low retention rates of its counterparts in the market.

However, Teo recognises that edtech is not a cure-all and that there will always be a group who won’t have access to even basic technology.

“Thankfully though,” she says, “experts have predicted that by 2020, at least 70 per cent of the world will have a basic smartphone and intermittent internet connectivity and Solve Education will leverage on that growing number”.

Also Read: eToro aims to make buying Bitcoin as easy as buying an Apple share

Education is essential for every child, and should not be made exclusive to those who can afford it.

“If everyone can do what they do best, the world would be a better place,” Teo says with conviction.

So, here’s to Solve Education enabling children to discover what they’re best in, and making the world a better place!

Photo by HT Chong on Unsplash

The post How Solve Education wants to help a billion people appeared first on e27.