Day: April 23, 2020

With COVID-19 going rampant around the world, it’s obvious that connection is the only thing that keeps us going, aside from essential workers and healthcare professionals on the frontline.

With public places closed down, all work-related activities are forced to find a rhythm at home, and so do training, seminars, and gatherings for learning.

If you are someone who loves to fill your downtime with learnings or want to master new skills altogether, then the circuit break, social distancing, or whatever terms used, may hinder you from doing the physical co-learning thing.

But the beauty of technology is that you can do (almost) anything just from the comfort of your gadget. COVID-19 has eliminated the need for physical meetings for learning, so these guys have the chance to shine.

FutureLab

FutureLab is an online mentorship and webinars platform that offers a chance to diversify solutions for the customers of businesses. In an article published in The Edge Market, the company said it was built for its enterprise clients to introduce mentorship internally and to ensure that there is succession planning.

The company was co-founded and CEO Brian Tan. In the interview, the FutureLab team revealed that they stumbled upon the business model as a new revenue stream by chance.

Also Read: These Indonesian edutech startups are helping students cope and thrive during the COVID-19 crisis

“They wanted to use their mentors but needed our platform. So, we repackaged it for them in two weeks and realised that it was an interesting concept where we could build and customise community mentoring platforms for individual business clients,” Tan said to The Edge Market.

Started as a mentor marketplace for the public to connect experienced mentors to mentees looking for help, it has now become a digital learning ecosystem targeting high schools, universities, and companies to come on board to join.

FutureLab’s enterprise solutions integrate educational institutions with companies and incubators to create what’s called a digital learning ecosystem, allowing mentees to create connections. Meanwhile, corporate clients can tap the new talents entering the market.

For companies using the service, it can use it to organise management training programmes through the platform and add their internal mentors and mentees. HR (human resources) department can track interactions and there is also an event tool to create workshops and community events.

MyClaaz

MyClaaz offers a flexible experience for tuition and professional learning on both the web and app, providing a one-to-one private home and online learning matching service for multiple levels.

MyClaaz allows users to become a student, learner, trainer, and tutor from wherever they are.

Besides offering Malaysia’s school-level and university subjects, the platform also offers what it calls professional subjects that cover business planning, copywriting, corporate financing, designing, accounting, and more.

The Malaysia-based company also offers public interest subjects, such as coding, public speaking, sports, cooking, baking, knitting, sewing, and languages.

To use the platform, users simply search for a preferred nearby tutor by using its tutor’s special map locator. Apps will pinpoint the users with the perfect tutor according to their preferences.

Then, users are free to select the learning service, whether it’s a video recorded teaching, notes, samples of exam’s question, real-time online teaching and problem solving, and home tutoring, which is not an option during the pandemic.

Learncool

Learncool enables knowledge sharing, regular online meetups, training, and bite-sized self-study. It seeks to spark collaboration, especially during the COVID-19 crisis, to assist with holding meet-ups online.

The Singapore-based edutech platform allows users to create a group, share the meeting code, click join conference button in-app, or web app. It targets organisations, such as toastmasters, yoga clubs, training groups, meetups, and hundreds of other such organisations to strengthen their value to customers.

Also Read: (Exclusive) Indonesian edutech startup Gredu raises pre-Series A funding round to help ease teachers’ workload

Learncool also assists users in learning and teaching using recordable video conference from anywhere. It also offers shareable video creation with collaboration features as well as a community-building tool through a monetisation option for advanced content and training.

Akadasia

Singapore-based Akadasia explains itself as “a group of experienced educators, entrepreneurs, creative thinkers, and technology professionals who are on a mission to provide free access to a good, quality education to all”.

Akadasia’s education service has an end goal to open up path for employment or financial support needed to start small businesses that could help the users improve the lives for themselves, their families, and the community at large.

It facilitates teachers to learn ways to engage students online, content creators to assist them in distributing content to learners through FREEJO, and technology partners to help them integrate their technology solutions right into FREEJOO for access by our users.

ProSpark

ProSpark is a Singapore-based e-learning platform for businesses. It has closed a pre-seed funding round led by early-stage venture capital firm Agaeti Ventures with participation from angel investor Adi Adisaputro and Prasetia Dwidharma, a telecom infrastructure developer and early-stage investment firm.

ProSpark was founded in 2018 with a mission to provide a business-to-business learning management system that allows employees to access individual or group training online. It gamifies the system with leadership boards, badges, and a points system.

Also Read: How the Coronavirus is teaching edutech startups a much-needed lesson

ProSpark lets companies onboard, train, and certify their employees. It also enables to conduct knowledge transfer and collaboration. The startup’s main market is Indonesia with priority sectors being banking and insurance.

With much in-person training being cancelled and companies looking for cheaper and more efficient ways to train people, these firma are seeing even higher demands than before.

Even before the pandemic, the global corporate e-learning sector is already expected to grow to US$30 billion by 2022 at a 13 per cent compound annual growth rate, according to Market Research Future. It’s safe to say that the pandemic just re-confirm that the e-learning sector’s position in the market is to be one of the most crisis-proof and sustainable.

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e27 aims to support the startup ecosystem in this challenging time by compiling list of discounts and offerings offered by companies to help support the ecosystem. To view the list, click here.Have an offering/discount for the community? Fill up this form.

Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

The post Here’re 5 online learning platforms to skill up your quarantined self appeared first on e27.

SoFi, an American personal finance company, announced today that it has acquired 8 Securities, a fintech platform based in Hong Kong. 8 Securities will be rebranded as SoFi Hong Kong as a result of the acquisition.

This marks SoFi’s first international foothold outside of the US.

Anthony Noto, CEO of SoFi shared a statement: “We underwent an extensive process in considering our initial expansion into an international market, and it quickly became clear that Hong Kong, the financial capital of Asia, is ripe for innovation.”

“Based on the platform we’ve built, SoFi, together with 8 Securities, can meet the needs of both experienced and novice investors alike, as part of our overall efforts to make headway on our mission outside of the US to help people get their money right,” he continued.

With SoFi, the company will be the only brokerage service that delivers free stock trading of over 15,000 US and Hong Kong stocks, as well as ETFs, with zero commissions, zero platform fees and zero custodian fees.

Also Read: DIVA officially acquires 30 per cent of shares in Pawoon

Members will be able to follow the investment portfolios of top-performing members of the community and learn what they are buying, selling, and holding. They will also see how their individual performances rank against their peers.

Before the acquisition, 8 Securities was a mobile investing and robo-advisory service in Hong Kong. The company was Asia’s first mobile-only investing service, robo-advisor, social trading platform with zero commission brokerage.

It was one of Hong Kong’s first licensed consumer fintech companies and has previously raised US$70 million in capital. The company was founded by Mathias Helleu and Mikaal Abdulla, who, prior to starting it in 2012, led E*TRADE‘s international business across 14 countries.

SoFi has recently finished a US$1.2 billion acquisition of financial API and payments platform Galileo. The platform will also be a means to distribute white label investing, savings, and lending products to B2B customers.

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Image Credit: Austin Distel on Unsplash

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The fashion industry has been growing fast in Southeast Asia. With the advancement of technology, more fashion companies are adopting a more sustainable, efficient, and innovative approach to provide the best experience to their customers.

Singapore-based Bridge Fashion Incubator is focussed on supporting companies in the region to develop innovative solutions in the fashion industry and has selected nine startups for its latest cohort.

Operating under the Textile and Fashion Federation (TaFF) and supported by the Singapore government, the 16-week programme will groom early-stage fashion-tech startups to improve and validate their products and services to make it market-ready.

The programme will help companies address key areas such as creating a strong brand strategy, developing product-market fit, building effective business infrastructure for longevity and scaling, as well as equipping founders with the necessary tools and providing them with access to a network of investors for potential fund-raising.

The mentors of the programme include Galen Crout, Integrated Marketing Lead at Shopify; British Council Advisor Joseph Lo; Co-founder and Social Impact Designer Laura Francois; and Founder of Hillsbrooks Consulting Peter Thewlis.

“Our aim is for all incubatees to walk away with an invaluable set of entrepreneur knowledge and tools, as well as a highly plugged-in international network of industry professionals so that they can continue to grow beyond the 16-week programme,” said Jo Soh, Programme Director at TaFF.

The latest companies to be accepted into the accelerator are:

Binary Style: A local boutique brand that weaves Singapore’s history and its diverse culture on scarves to tell the nation’s story. The brand is currently expanding its product line with resort-wear.

Graceful Swimmers: Swimwear label that incorporates environmental friendly fabrics to create quality activewear for female swimmers seeking full coverage and a complete range of motion.

Igloo Wear: A digital rental service platform that provides winter clothing at affordable rates, so that consumer’s don’t have to splurge on winterwear during travels.

LOOMS: A creative textile studio that creates unique textile products, handcrafted by women artisans. The startup also provides support for women artisans through training and work opportunities.

OliveAnkara: A fashion label that offers contemporary apparel and accessories in distinctive African printed textiles using the concept of zero waste. OliveAnkara uses striking colours and patterns of the Ankara fabrics, to allow women of all colours to express themselves.

Also Read: News Roundup: Ruangguru CEO Belva Devara resigns from Presidents special staff position

Punkabella: A personalised digital clothing line that enables consumers to express their digital identities through a virtual experience before physical garments are made.

SANS FAFF: A sustainable minimalist womenswear label that focuses on essentials through well-constructed designs that can be worn for anyone season.

Shop Bettr: An online marketplace that aggregates all sustainable fashion brands worldwide to assist consumers in finding sustainable alternatives to their fashion needs.

 Tropick Apparel: A menswear label that creates multi-functional performance dress shirts for men. The brand has created sweat-wicking and quick-drying properties that are practical for tropical weather.

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Image Credit: Victor Xok

The post A sneak-peek at the 9 startups selected for Bridge Fashion Incubator’s latest cohort appeared first on e27.

Beenext invests US$4.5M in fintech platform YAP

Singaporean venture capital firm Beenext has announced US$4.5 million investment in Indian fintech platform YAP, according to ET.

8i Ventures Fund, The DMI Group, Better Capital, and angel investors including Alok Mittal, CEO, Indifi, Ashneer Grover, CEO, BharatPe, Amrish Rau, CEO, PineLabs and Jupiter founder Jitendra Gupta also joined the round.

The company has said that the funds will be used to strengthen its team and enhance its platform with a focus on credit, corporate banking solutions, and cross-border payments.

“Our platform is connected to 15 banks in India, and by leveraging technology, we are accelerating the shift in ‘sacheting’ of financial services by new cohorts of distribution, leading to lowering costs, enhancing access, and better value proposition to end consumers,” said Prabhu Rangarajan, co-founder of YAP.

YAP works with financial institutions as product providers and offers end-to-end programme management services over APIs.

Also Read: gojek investor Northstar makes first close of its US$800M fifth fund

Facebook buys 10 per cent stake in Indian telecom operator Reliance Jio

Social media giant Facebook has announced an investment of US$5.7 billion in India’s telecom operator Reliance Jio, according to Techcrunch. The deal will bring Jio’s valuation to US$65.95 billion.

Facebook said that the stake marks its “commitment to India, where it will focus on collaborating with Jio to create ‘new ways for people and businesses to operate more effectively in the growing digital economy’.”

The agreement also marks one of India’s largest foreign direct investment in the technology space.

Mukesh Ambani, managing director of Jio, said that the synergy between the two companies will help realise Digital India Mission with its two goals: “Ease of living and ease of doing business for every single category of Indian people without exception.”

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Image Credit: Beenext

The post Afternoon News Roundup: Beenext invests in YAP, Facebook buys stake in Reliance Jio appeared first on e27.

We launched e27 Pro because we want to help empower the ecosystem and help build successful companies. Now, let us walk you through exactly what it is.

e27 Pro is a platform that gives you access to insights, tools, and opportunities that help you solve the problems that hold you back.

How exactly can it do that?

Members of e27 Pro get to enjoy different features that give them a leg up on dealing with the challenges of building a successful company.

Features such as:

e27 Ecosystem Roundup — receive exclusive emails that put together everything you need to know about tech and startups in the region. From the latest news to insights on current trends, we put together everything you need to know from over 50 news sites in one email, twice weekly.

Fundraising widgets — get access to a special widget that lets the world know that you’re fundraising. Visible on both your company profile page and the e27 homepage, it’s perfect for getting in the radar of investors who could help you grow.

e27 Connect — meet the right investors with Pro’s e27 Connect: a platform where we connect startups to prospective investors that are interested in collaborating and providing funding for future business growth.

Investor Database — know who’s who in the APAC fundraising scene with the e27 Investor Database. Sift through all the noise and get all the important data you need about the region’s most active investors.

Connect with potential partners — Initiate and sustain engagement with the community with the ability to reach out to companies on the platform and take the first steps to build a productive partnership and/or collaboration.

Support ecosystem development — When you become an e27 Pro member, you help ensure that we can continue to build tools, programmes, and partnerships that help the region’s startup ecosystem develop.

Moreover, by becoming part of the e27 Pro community, you become part of a community of decision-makers making a difference not only in their own respective startups and corporates, but the larger tech ecosystem in Southeast Asia and beyond.

Staying true to its name, an e27 Pro membership means taking your company to a more professional level, all while supporting your company and the vibrant startup community that we all operate in. You don’t only become more of a “pro” in every sense of the word, but you also further galvanise your position as a pro-community, pro-collaboration, and pro-innovation partner.

Be a part of the community and sign up for an e27 Pro membership today! You may visit here for more details.

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