AGORACOM Small-cap Investor Relations Blog

• Announced the launch of their mobile app in parallel to their National Skills Development Corporation partnership announcement held at a Press Conference on July 15th 2019 in Delhi India
• Company has been waiting to see how the app has been performing before announcing the details of the launch
• launch of the Company’s mobile app is an important milestone required to support betterU’s revenue strategy and drive more awareness and user access to their library of global educators

OTTAWA, Aug. 02, 2019 – betterU Education Corp. (TSX VENTURE:BTRU) (FRANKFURT:5OGA), (the “Company” or “betterU”) is pleased to announce the launch of their mobile app in parallel to their National Skills Development Corporation (“NSDC”) partnership announcement held at a Press Conference on July 15th 2019 in Delhi India. The Company has been waiting to see how the app has been performing before announcing the details of the launch.

The launch of the Company’s mobile app is an important milestone required to support betterU’s revenue strategy and drive more awareness and user access to their library of global educators. India has the highest average data usage per smartphone in the world according to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report released in June 2019. It has also become the world’s fastest-growing market for mobile applications on both the Apple iOS and Google’s Android Play Store and leads in the greatest number of mobile app downloaded across both platforms, according to app market data and insights company App Annie. betterU has been focused over the last year on developing the right tools to ensure that their offering can be accessed through the most common channels in India.

betterU’s app, which can be downloaded from the Google Play Store, has already been downloaded over 1600 times in the last two weeks, is receiving good ratings and has no application crashes. The beta launch was a great test of the development efforts of the Company, having integrated their entire catalogue of global education partners as well as integrating betterU’s Upskill Engine, which is focused on supporting individualized skill development for jobs across industries within India. The development of Upskill Engine is ongoing and will continue to advance as more partnerships are realized through NSDC and India’s 38 Sector Skill Councils (SSC) which NSDC is working to support betterU on. The Upskill Engine is a key priority for betterU as it helps guide a user to through a self-assessment defined by each SSC, then it will provide a learning path of recommended courses the user would require to complete in order to advance their skills specifically for their job of interest.   

All marketing efforts going forward will be to drive users to download the mobile app so that no matter where they are, they can access the best education from around the world.

About betterU

betterU, an online education technology company, aims to provide access to quality education from around the world in order to foster growth and opportunity to those who want to better their lives. The Company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing an integrated ecosystem. betterU’s offerings can be categorized into four broad functions: to compliment school programs with flexible KG-12 programs preparing children for their next stage of education, to foster an exceptional educational environment by providing befitting skills that lead to a better career, to bridge the gap between one’s existing education and prospective job requirement by training them and lastly, to connect the end user to various job opportunities.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

By their nature, forward-looking statements include assumptions and are subject to inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future results, conditions, actions or events to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. If and when forward-looking statements are set out in this news release, BetterU will also set out the material risk factors or assumptions used to develop the forward-looking statements. Except as expressly required by applicable securities law, the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. The future outcomes that relate to forward-looking statements may be influenced by many factors, including, but not limited to: industry cyclicality; the ability to secure third party agreements; successful integration of BetterU’s system with third party technology; competition; reduction in demand for products; collection from customers; relationships with suppliers; product liability; intellectual property; reliance on key personnel; environmental; interest rates; uninsured and underinsured losses; operating hazards; risks of future legal proceedings; income tax matters; credit facilities; availability and terms of financing; distribution of securities; restrictions on potential growth; effect of market interest rates on price of securities; and potential dilution. betterU does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by law.

CONTACT INFORMATION

On behalf of the Board of Directors,
betterU Education Corp.
Brad Loiselle, CEO

Investor Relations
1-613-695-4100
Email: [email protected]

Sequoia adds USD 200 million to its sixth India fund in a warming market

The venture capital firm originally targeted at 1 billion for its sixth Indian fund.

By Priya Pradeep Thu Aug 01 2019

• Sequoia has been one of the most active investors in India over the past decade, with investments across a wide array of sectors, from high-profiled hotel chain Oyo Rooms, edtech upriser Byju’s, to SaaS service Freshworks, all of which are local unicorns.

Sequoia India, the country’s largest venture capital after raising its USD 695 million sixth fund last August, is looking to add an additional 200 million dollars to the fund, per local financial media Mint. If the financing coming through, it’ll push the fund size closer to the 1 billion Sequoia originally targeted but eventually had to slash due to the then market conditions.

The move is driven by a growing market and reignited interests from limited partners (LPs), anonymous sources told Mint. More than 80% of Sequoia’s LPs are non-profits — universities, endowments, charities, and foundations.

Sequoia manages around USD 4.5 billion assets across several funds in India. It’s bigger than the other tier-1 venture capital funds in the country, including the likes of Nexus Venture Partners (1.39 billion as of now) and Accel.

Sequoia has been one of the most active investors in India over the past decade, with investments across a wide array of sectors, from high-profiled hotel chain Oyo Rooms, edtech upriser Byju’s, to SaaS service Freshworks, all of which are local unicorns. In the first half of this year, it has invested in 32 local startups, making it the most prolific Indian investors during the period.

In total Sequoia has more than 200 companies in its Indian portfolio.

Since its inception in India in 2006, Sequoia followed a two-pronged strategy in the market: invest in early-stage start-ups and those that are into technology or are technology-enabled. In addition to local investments, the firm also sets eye on neighboring and other regions. It intends to disburse 20-30% of its corpus in Southeast Asia.

The Silicon Valley venture capital’s Indian arm also has stakes in Australia’s online healthcare services provider HealthEngine, Bangladesh’s online merchant marketplace ShopUp, and the Stockholm-headquartered caller identity app Truecaller.

Sequoia India is making decent proceeds from selling or exiting some of its investees, one of the reasons for the renewed interests from LPs.

In December 2018, Sequoia India sold a part of its stake in Byju’s for USD 190 million, after investing USD 50 million across rounds since 2015. It still holds a minority stake in the company. Additionally, it stands to make USD 500 million from investing USD 25 million across rounds in Oyo Rooms, where its founder Ritesh Agarwal announced a USD 1.5 billion share buyback.

Sequoia has recently launched Surge, an accelerator programme dedicated to invest exclusively at the seed stage for start-ups in India and Southeast Asia.

The program, headed by Rajan Anandan, former VP, India and Southeast Asia, Google, aims to invest in 30-40 start-ups annually for four months and invest USD 1-2 million in each company. The launch of Surge signifies that Sequoia, which typically invests more in growth and later stage companies, is moving upstream into the early stage in a changing market.

Source: https://kr-asia.com/sequoia-adds-usd-200-million-to-its-sixth-india-fund-in-a-warming-market