📚 Teaching with VERE360
Building tech-enabled tools for teachers to facilitate an enriched learning experience
Hi everyone! As you could see, today’s issue is a bit different.
In our mission to help connect entrepreneurs with the right talent and resources, we’re tweaking the newsletter and introducing a section dedicated to profiling founders and their startups, with an initial focus towards Southeast Asia.
The focus towards the SEA market is two-fold:
Golden Gate Ventures recently released an updated research report with INSEAD detailing the forecast of the exit landscape for the SEA startup ecosystem. It ballparks at least 700 startup exits from 2021 to 2024. In short, the future seems bright for those seeking to jumpstart their own venture.
The startup ecosystems in the U.S. and Europe have seen plentiful of media coverage, and we hope to bring more awareness to founders and emerging startups in Southeast Asia, helping bridge and share knowledge through an increasingly global network.
We will be speaking with early-stage founders about their product as well as their successes and shortcomings of launching their startups. To ensure that we maintain consistency and quality on the material itself, we will send these issues on a bi-weekly basis.
🔥 I’m excited to be working with Sofia Cabral and Nick Palermo on this new initiative. Currently based in Singapore, we are looking forward to speaking with founders and sharing insights with you all within this burgeoning market. So, if you are or know of an early-stage founder who would be interested in being featured, don’t hesitate to reach out!
- Jeff
Wrapping Up with Izzy Ngo, Co-Founder of VERE360
In this week’s issue, I got the chance to sit in with Isobel "Izzy" Ngo and discuss what she’s been working on at her startup. Izzy Ngo is the co-founder of VERE360 and an ed-tech entrepreneur for Southeast Asia, who’s deeply passionate about democratizing quality educational resources through technology. She has received her education from Yale-NUS College and INSEAD, and has worked in two Indonesian startups, McKinsey & Company, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and JD.id.
Pain Points:
From lab experiments to field trips, experiential learning has been a key facet of education that has become restricted due to COVID-19, which forced mass school closures around the world. Yet, it has also been a problem for teachers before the pandemic. Experiential learning is expensive for schools and time intensive for teachers, and it’s not scalable for students.
Market Size:
For the near future, we are focusing on Southeast Asia as our target market, specifically Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The total market value of these three countries is SGD 4.4B.
Product:
We offer a Virtual Reality educational platform and content for K-12 schools that allow teachers to integrate their existing slides with a library of relevant, immersive content in an interface similar to PowerPoint. Using web and mobile apps, teachers can share their content with students from anywhere around the world with no additional hardware. At VERE360, we are bringing experiential learning online to make it affordable, scalable, and teacher-friendly.
What 3 founders should we know about?
Angela Chen and Aurelien Chu, Founders of Eskwelabs: Eskwelabs is reimagining the vocational school. Our mission is to democratize access to the future of work for those from diverse backgrounds through data skills.
Jamie Tan, Founder of Flying Cape Technologies: Flying Cape Technologies believes true learning happens when it is delivered in a personalized way that caters to an individual’s unique learning styles. Working with esteemed academics and education leaders, we have built a global ecosystem powered by validated research, data and analytics to pave the way for the future of learning.
Chongming Ng, Co-Founder of Practicle: Practicle is an AI adaptive technology for education. We help to identify the learning gaps of children and close them through a personalized and gamified approach. We work with tuition centres and schools to help automate their work processes so that they can easily teach at their maximum efficiency.
For the full debrief, check it out here (3-min read)!
Tech Pulse 🌎
Recap in the West
Facebook copies Substack. Would you pay for a new ad-free, privacy-first search engine? JPM + M&A + ESG. Social media influencers are jumping aboard the altcoin train. Consolidation season is in the midst for online grocery. A sneak peek into Duolingo’s S-1. Robinhood gives back, up to 35% of its IPO shares, to retail investors. A ‘LinkedIn for doctors’, backed by doctors, debuts at a $10bn valuation. E-commerce giant Hepsiburada sets record for being the first Turkish Nasdaq IPO. A profile on Amazon’s next head honcho, Andy Jassy. The future of remote work may be costly. E-scooter Bird gets into e-bikes. Spotify expands offline with events. Content creators are becoming the new influencers.
A few funding rounds that were announced this week…
Pietra bags $15m (Series A) led by Founders Fund to help creators scale their own products. From being a marketplace for jewelry sellers to being an all-inclusive sales platform for creators, it aims to give creators the tools to launch a digital-first consumer business in the most efficient, cost-effective way.
Buzzer gets some buzz, raising $20m (Series A) for its mobile sports streaming app. Users would pay as little as $0.99 to watch curated parts of live sporting events on its distribution platform. It has inked partnerships with the NBA, NHL and PGA and garnered investments from high-profiled athletes.
Karat locks in $26m (Series A) led by USV to further build out a better banking system for creators. It launched its first product, the Karat Black Card, a credit card for creators, back in June 2020 and has since seen 50% growth MoM and eight figures in transactions. Heavyweight celebrities and techies have invested into the platform.
Recap in the East
Carousell explores $1.5bn SPAC. Singapore and the UK are sparking a digital alliance. Indonesia’s making it easier for tech companies to list in its stock exchange. The same can’t be said about Vietnam. Dingdong Maicai gets dinged with a curtailed IPO target. The future isn’t all robots yet for SoftBank. The mobile gaming business is booming in Indonesia. GoTo is ready to weather the COVID storm. Didi’s gigantic IPO is followed by an investigation. Indonesian couriers double down on strikes for better remuneration and benefits. Fave rides the BNPL wave in Malaysia and Singapore. Budget(-premium) hotel startups Oyo and RedDoorz welcome a staycation. Disney+ sustains a win with its ‘go cheap or go home’ model. Jio and Google are creating an ultra-affordable 4G smartphone.
Some funding rounds for the week…
E-commerce marketplace aggregator 10club raises $40m (Seed) co-led by Fireside Ventures and an undisclosed global investor to build the Thrasio of India. The deal would make it one of the largest seed financing rounds in the South Asian market.
Indonesian dental startup Klar bags an undisclosed amount (Seed) from AC Ventures and Kopi Kenangan’s fund to produce clear aligners that can improve teeth alignment without braces. It has partnered with 600+ dentists and is present in 100+ clinics across 32 cities in Indonesia.
Singapore-based investment app Infina raises $2m (Seed) to expand its product offering. With tens of thousands of users and fund managers on board, it gives customers the ability to invest as low as $25 in assets including savings, term deposits, real estate, mutual funds, and, soon, stocks.
What Else We're Following 👀
“Software continues to eat the world, and will for decades to come”. An interview with Marc Andreessen (Noahpinion)
How to work hard (Paul Graham’s Essays)
“If you truly want to be great at investing you need all the right skills and access AND a diversified portfolio. You need shots on goal as not every one will go in the back of the net.” Mark Suster on the numerator effect of completing deals (Both Sides of the Table)
“Make sure you see tons of deals. You need to develop pattern recognition for what truly exceptional looks like.” Mark Suster on the denominator effect of seeing deals (Both Sides of the Table)
An all-inclusive guide to understanding how to break into VC, made by and for students (Venture Capital Guidebook)
Adapt or die: even VCs like Benchmark who made legendary returns isn’t susceptible to the changing dynamics of the industry (The Information)
Who’s Hiring 👩🏽💼
For this week’s job postings (internships & full-time), please check out our Notion page here!
Another week is in the books! If you have any feedback or inquiries, feel free to email me at jeffrey.dong@insead.edu or comment below.
In the meantime, please share Wrapped Up if you enjoyed this newsletter.