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Can #Edtech Replace Classroom Learning In Times Of The #Coronavirus Pandemic? – SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 3:30 PM on Monday, June 8th, 2020

SPONSOR:  BetterU Education Corp. aims to provide access to quality education from around the world. 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 / Ottolearn launch FREE COVID-19 mobile resource toolkit to fight the global crisis – Click here for more information.

Can Edtech Replace Classroom Learning In Times Of The Coronavirus Pandemic?

  • Edtech has definitely proven to be a saviour for students in these tough times
  • Elearning can provide itself as a comparable supplement to face-to-face classes in current times

By: Akhil Shahani

With schools and colleges shutting down due to the Covid-19 led lockdown, teachers and parents are worried about academics and loss of time in terms of learning that students will face. This may be the biggest disruption that education has ever witnessed where leading educational institutes are adapting newer technologies to facilitate learning.

Edtech – A Boon For Education

Edtech has definitely proven to be a saviour for students in these tough times. Any student who has access to a smartphone and a broadband connection can acquire a vast amount of content available online.

There are many free and paid online education resources and videos available that are easily accessible on sites such as Youtube. Additionally, advanced courses can be accessed from MOOC websites and platforms that are now making its courses free for students. The Indian government’s initiative Swayam, also offers free courses on its platform.

Hurdles To Democratising Education

However, in a country like India, replacing classroom learning with online education may prove to be more difficult than it sounds. The adoption of online learning is riddled with major hindrances. The first and foremost is the lack of good internet connectivity in India’s hinterlands, making it difficult for the lesser privileged rural population to access online education.

Students in these areas can access education videos via DVDs or pen drives; however, that depends on whether these children have access to tools such as smartphones, computers and players that are required to make these resources work, and a reliable electricity connection.

Another impediment is that a majority of online education is available in the English language, which only 10% of India’s population understand. It is imperative to have more educational content available in vernacular languages.

From a hiring and employment perspective, online degrees may not be beneficial to students as many employers do not consider online degrees credible for entry-level job hiring. Students still need to go to colleges with physical classrooms to be taken seriously by recruiters.

Government As A Stakeholder

The government can help overcome these hindrances and promote online education through various initiatives. In addition to the Swayam portal mentioned earlier, it can fund the development of online vernacular courses from school to college levels.

Ensuring the availability of a good internet connection and laptops for every government school will provide every student with an equal chance to avail quality education. This can also be done for budget private schools.

Private-public partnerships can also help in creating the infrastructure and services required to democratise education further. The government can publicise the use of online education to many of those that might be unaware that these resources exist.

The various tools used in online education such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented reality, virtual reality and gamification can help enhance the learning experience and have emerged as a boon for educators and students alike. The use of these innovations cannot be ignored, and educational institutions must inculcate the same in its curriculum moving forward for the benefit of its students.

However, despite the innovations currently witnessed in the edtech space, nothing beats the benefits a child gets from attending a regular school classroom.  The development of social skills takes place via interactions with their classmates and teachers.

Also, their facial expressions and tone of voice while responding to questions, allows an empathetic teacher to understand their learning needs better. Elearning can provide itself as a comparable supplement to face-to-face classes in current times, but cannot replace physical classrooms as a long term solution. The only way forward is an amalgamation of the two modules, a blend that combines the best of both worlds to propel education in the right direction.

Source: https://inc42.com/resources/can-edtech-replace-classroom-learning-in-times-of-pandemic/

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betterU Education $BTRU.ca Provides Corporate Update $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 8:27 AM on Friday, June 5th, 2020

OTTAWA, June 05, 2020 — betterU Education Corp. (TSX VENTURE: BTRU, Frankfurt: 5OGA) (the “Company” or “betterU”) would like to provide an update on the development of the Company.

Corporate Update

  • betterU launches Software as a Service (SaaS) Learning Management System (LMS) – To support betterU’s B2B Ready-To-Go mobile platform, the company has developed and fully integrated a skills development LMS that enables corporate clients, schools and government clients to manage their teams, assign skills programs, access robust reporting and much more. betterU’s skills development LMS integrates seamlessly with the Ready-To-Go mobile platform and assessment system creating a more comprehensive skilling solution for the market.

    The Skills Development LMS has already received high reviews from betterU’s clients. The skills development LMS provides betterU with the ability to manage scale more effectively, putting control in the hands of companies, with the governance, structure and backend being managed by the betterU team.

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/df31a720-9d8b-47dc-919b-b0a38fc327a4
  • Corporate Clients – betterU continues to work closely with Positive Ventures Group in Canada and Paramount Staffing in the USA for the development and growth of their programs. betterU has the completed tools and resources to effectively support growth opportunities within both these clients, and their clients as well. The Company announced on April 8th 2020 the signing of Paramount Staffing as a new client. Paramount Staffing, is a subsidiary of Proman, based in France, a multibillion-dollar staffing company with over 50,000 global employees and more than 20,000 corporate clients. betterU, by focusing on Paramount’s needs to support their teams across the USA and Canada, opens opportunities to support the entire organization.  
     
  • Corporate Visibility – betterU has officially launched its social media programs across multiple social media platforms. If you are not following betterU already, please follow on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. betterU has surpassed over 130,000 followers on Facebook. The social program provides highlights about company advancements, new products and services, the TIPS (Tackling Ideas that Provide Skills) program and much more. In addition to providing awareness through social media, the company will be launching this quarter their newsletter and blogging portal that will be available at https://corporate.betteru.ca/.  
     
  • Funding – the Company has been approved for a $40,000 interest free 2-year loan and a $41,000 IRAP IAP grant to support employees over the next three months as well as to support current business needs. The Company has applied for additional non-dilutive funding through other such government programs.

About betterU Education Corp.

betterU is an education-to-employment technology company offering an end-to-end solution leveraging business intelligence to automate skilling, reskilling and upskilling for companies operating on domestic and global scales.

betterU has integrated into its platform the content, technology and support for tailored skills assessments, learning pathways and training modules from 100+ of the world’s leading online education providers. betterU’s eco-system includes detailed job, skill, employer, and educational profiles spanning 3,000+ standardized jobs. betterU’s integrated platform is the most efficient solution to address evolving skilling challenges for employers and employees through the employment lifecycle from entry level to executive. We don’t sell content, we help build better people.  

For more information, please visit https://corporate.betteru.ca/corporate-gov/

Contact:

Brad Loiselle, CEO
1-613-695-4100
[email protected]

betterU Education Corp.
Investor Relations
Email: [email protected]

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.

betterU LMS
betterU LMS supports corporate, schools and government clients in assigning and managing their skills development programs. betterU’s LMS comes pre-loaded with over 500 skills development programs supporting various departments and individual skills requirements.

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#Edtech Boom Boosted by Experiences in Lockdown – SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 1:43 PM on Monday, May 25th, 2020

SPONSOR:  BetterU Education Corp. aims to provide access to quality education from around the world. 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 / Ottolearn launch FREE COVID-19 mobile resource toolkit to fight the global crisis – Click here for more information.

Edtech Boom Boosted by Experiences in Lockdown

  • Coronavirus lockdown opens new paths for online education
  • The edtech field may see its growth accelerating even faster because of pandemic
  • The world of education and worker retraining has been upended by the coronavirus, with many changes that could have long-lasting impacts

By: Bruce Rule

Teacher Kai Frazier had a hard time persuading venture capital investors to consider her online education startup, which provides virtual-reality tours of museums and historic sites for children. Then the deadly coronavirus caused societies to shut down worldwide.

“VCs thought that this was only for poor kids who couldn’t afford to go to museums,” Frazier told Karma. “COVID-19 took that argument out” and led potential investors to reconsider Kai XR, she said. Now, Frazier is in the midst of a funding round that may net between $500,000 and $1 million.

With almost 1.2 billion children locked out of schools and millions of adults out of work around the globe, the deadly coronavirus pandemic is forcing the world to re-examine how best to educate and retrain people. That may spur even faster growth of online education, a field that was already expected to surge to $319 billion by 2025 from $188 billion last year.

“COVID-19 is a terrible thing, but what it also did was break down structures that weren’t serving a lot of people,” Frazier said. “Online education may quickly become the classroom experience.”

Her company produces virtual reality tours — like this one of the Obama portraits — that will be viewed online for a monthly subscription fee on a platform that launched last month. The company has seen a 200% increase in people signing up for a free demonstration because of the pandemic.

With VR tours, a child can have a wide range of experiences — from touring a Negro League baseball museum to seeing how a windmill works — that might not otherwise be available because of cost or distance, Frazier said. Online can provide a “diverse education.”

Investors certainly are betting so. A record $18.7 billion was invested in edtech companies worldwide last year, according to research firm Metaari. The pandemic doesn’t seem to have killed enthusiasm for the field. In March, online education company Yuanfudao of China raised $1 billion in a finance round led by Tencent Holdings and private equity firm Hillhouse Capital Group.

According to education research firm HolonIQ, a lot of that growth will eventually be in emerging markets in India, Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa, “where multi-billion dollar funds are being set up to deploy capital into education and other ESG and impact sectors.”
   
Worker retraining also has become a hot topic, with a White House advisory panel last week saying new pathways are needed for the unemployed to upgrade their skills and learn new ones so they can find jobs in fields that are expected to rebound first.

Guild Education is responding to that need. The edtech company was founded in 2015 to help employers including Chipotle, Disney and Walmart create education programs for workers by connecting companies with higher-ed programs at nonprofit universities.

Earlier this month, Guild launched the Next Chapter platform, which enables employers to
provide laid-off workers with access to reskilling programs and hands-on coaching to help them qualify for new positions in areas where demand will increase as the economy reopens.

“Next Chapter was created to help workers make the leap to higher wage” positions, Rachel Carlson, Guild’s CEO, said in an email to Karma.

Investors are also jumping into the field of worker training. Online training platform GO1.com announced this week it raised $40 million in Series C funding.
 
“What has been made clear through this pandemic is the importance of disseminating knowledge across borders, companies, and all parts of society,” The World Economic Forum said in a report last month. “If online learning technology can play a role here, it is incumbent upon all of us to explore its full potential.”

Source: https://karmaimpact.com/edtech-boom-boosted-by-experiences-in-lockdown/

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Torino Power Solutions Announces Closing of First Tranche of RTO Financing by #KABN Systems North America Inc. and Satisfaction of Financing Condition

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 8:52 AM on Thursday, May 21st, 2020
http://blog.agoracom.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image-3.png
  • Completed the first tranche of its private placement financing of units of KABN North America (the “Units”) in connection with its reverse take-over of the Company for gross proceeds of approximately $941,987.00
  • Company will be completing all outstanding CSE application documentation and expects to be able to announce a listing date for its post-RTO shares shortly.

Toronto, Ontario–(May 20, 2020) –  Torino Power Solutions, to be renamed KABN Systems NA Holdings Corp. (CSE: TPS) (the “Company”), that will be a North American Fintech solutions company enabling users to verify, manage and monetize their digital identity, is pleased to announce that KABN Systems North America Inc. (“KABN North America”) has completed the first tranche of its private placement financing of units of KABN North America (the “Units”) in connection with its reverse take-over (the “RTO”) of the Company for gross proceeds of approximately $941,987.00.

Each Unit was priced at $0.15 CDN and consisted of (a) one common share (“Common Share”) in the share capital of KABN North America and (b) a one-half (1/2) KABN North America Common Share purchase warrant, with each whole warrant having an exercise price of $0.20 for a period of 18 months from the date of issue. An additional tranche of Units may be placed prior to the closing of the RTO.

As noted in its press release of April 22, 2020, the Company has received conditional approval from the Canadian Securities Exchange (the “CSE”) in connection with the RTO. The conditions required to complete the listing of the post-RTO shares of the Company included the closing of a planned private placement by KABN North America, which condition has now been met. The Company will be completing all outstanding CSE application documentation and expects to be able to announce a listing date for its post-RTO shares shortly.

KABN North America has its own, proprietary, reusable and Always On digital identity and is developing digital identity solutions that will integrate and work with other identity partners within healthcare, eSports and gaming, social media, education, government as well as other information and data services. KABN North America’s solutions mimic real world applications and make digital identity management easy and simple.

KABN North America provides authenticated digital identity to online consumers and commercial clients and recently introduced Liquid Avatar (www.liquidavatar.com), a high quality image based icon that provides an innovative way for consumers to manage and control their online digital identity as easily as managing their “real world” wallet and key rings.

Liquid Avatar allows consumers to share both public and private authenticated information online how they want, when they want and with whom they want.

Liquid Avatar is available to consumers at no cost and KABN North America has engagement-based revenue programs built into the platform, including KABN KASH, KABN North America’s prepaid Visa card and mobile banking solution.

About KABN Systems North America Inc. – www.kabnsystemsna.com

KABN North America operates the North American programs of the global KABN Network. The KABN Network provides a holistic approach to digital identity management by empowering consumers with its verification, management and monetization solutions. KABN ID provides an Always On patent-pending identity validation and verification platform, allowing users to continuously and confidently prove themselves to the online community, Exchanges and other services. KABN North America’s identity services provide the backbone to its financial, loyalty and engagement programs including the Pegasus Flyte prepaid Visa card program and KABN KASH, an innovative cash back program where users are connected to major merchants for savings when they shop. The Company will carry on the business of KABN North America under the name KABN Systems NA Holdings Corp. following completion of the RTO.

The KABN Network recently introduced Liquid Avatar (www.liquidavatar.com) which provides consumers with a robust Digital Identity Management platform at no cost, to effectively mimic a “real world” wallet and key chain, allowing effective control and management over both public and private identity and data.

Trading Halt

Trading in the shares of the Company will remain halted until all the requirements of the CSE have been met and the resumption of trading is approved by the CSE.

For more information on the Company, please visit www.torinopower.com or contact Bryan Loree at 604-808-2225 or [email protected].

For more information on KABN North America please contact:

KABN Systems North America Inc.
Ben Kessler, CEO
[email protected]
The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Completion of the RTO and the listing of the Company’s shares following the RTO is subject to a number of conditions. There can be no assurance that the RTO will be completed. Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the management information circular or listing statement of the Company to be prepared in connection with the RTO, any information released or received with respect to the RTO may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon.

This news release does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities of KABN North America in the United States. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “U.S. Securities Act”) or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to U.S. Persons unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or an exemption from such registration is available

Forward-Looking Statements: Except for any historical matters contained herein, statements made in this press release are forward-looking statements. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, words such as “may”, “will”, “to”, “plan”, “expect”, “believe”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “could”, “would”, “estimate”, or “continue”, or the negative other variations thereof or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Also, forward-looking statements represent our management’s beliefs and assumptions only as of the date hereof. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly, or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

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#Edtech Startups Look For Permanence Beyond The #Covid19 Lockdown Boom – SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 12:07 PM on Wednesday, May 20th, 2020

SPONSOR:  BetterU Education Corp. aims to provide access to quality education from around the world. 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 / Ottolearn launch FREE COVID-19 mobile resource toolkit to fight the global crisis – Click here for more information.

Edtech Startups Look For Permanence Beyond The Covid-19 Lockdown Boom

  • Since the lockdown, Indian edtech companies have reported major spikes in their user registrations and engagement
  • Upskilling has emerged as a growing trend among Indian adults as the lockdown increased downtime for employees
  • Edtech startups believe that online learning will be largely immune to the post-lockdown decline in digital adoption

By: Yatti Soni

It’s no surprise that the countrywide school and college shutdown has brought edtech to the fore. While earlier, it felt like a luxury, online learning is pretty much the only option now for students, teachers and schools. Right from the very first week of the lockdown in India, edtech platforms moved to capitalise on the growth wave and it resulted in an unprecedented spike in user registrations and time spent on online learning platforms. 

According to SimilarWeb, based on a study of 35 top online learning platforms, the edtech segment saw a 26% increase in user visits between April 2019 to March 2020, as compared to April 2018 – March 2019. Further, the first 28 days of lockdown in India edtech segment saw 128.8 Mn visits (on average, 4.6Mn daily visits) as compared to 102.2 Mn average visits between April 2019 – Feb 2020.

Read More: https://inc42.com/features/edtech-startups-look-for-permanence-beyond-the-covid-19-lockdown-boom/

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betterU $BTRU.ca restructures Board of Directors to advance the Company’s global efforts $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:05 AM on Friday, May 15th, 2020
http://www.smallcapepicenter.com/BTRU%20Square.png
  • Company has augmented the Board of Directors to include international Board of Directors and Board Advisors
  • Joining the Board of Directors is Duncan Cowie, CPA-CA, and as a Principal Advisor to the Board of Directors, Ambassador Vishnu Prakash

OTTAWA, May 15, 2020 — betterU Education Corp. (TSX VENTURE:BTRU) (FRANKFURT:5OGA), (the “Company” or “betterU”) is pleased to announce that as part of the Company’s 2020 restructuring plan the Company has augmented the Board of Directors to include international Board of Directors and Board Advisors. Joining the Board of Directors is Duncan Cowie, CPA-CA, and as a Principal Advisor to the Board of Directors, Ambassador Vishnu Prakash. The new board support will advance the Company’s expertise in the areas of the education marketing, global business development, financial management, M&A, public markets and board governance. The Company will also continue its efforts over the months to come, to add more expertise to support the Board of Directors and Company leadership.  

Board members Praveen Varshney, Robert Kang and Rajeev Dewan have agreed to step down from the board of Directors effective immediately to allow for the restructuring of the new board and advisors to take place. “With the transformation of our business in early 2020, the advancements of our North American B2B SaaS focus and clients, along with our international growth plans, it is time to bring in new leadership and governance that can help transform and advance our global growth. I want to thank the exiting board members for their time and commitment to the company over the years. Both myself and my Board Chairman, Tony Keenan will continue to work at advancing the strength and support our leadership to be successful in 2020 and beyond”, said Brad Loiselle, President and CEO betterU.   

In early 2020 betterU started advancing their innovative B2B Ready-To-Go platform resulting in several new North American clients. While the betterU team continues to advance their automation and AI capabilities to support the scale of international users, the new Board and Special Board Advisors will provide greater insight, financial governance, investor, public support and connections to help accelerate betterU’s global growth in revenues and strategic partnerships.

About Duncan Cowie

Mr. Cowie has over three decades of holding senior executive positions including as the CEO Global Connect-China, the Executive VP and Regional Manager for Transcom Worldwide / NuComm International, the VP and General Manager / Finance of CSA Group, the Sr. VP and CFO Minacs Worldwide, the CFO and VP for The Hospital for Sick Children and the VP Strategic and Business planning Molson Breweries.

Mr. Cowie also has five years of experience building education and training programs. Experienced in corporate development activities including leadership of international business operations, mergers and acquisitions, partnerships and agency structures. Results demonstrated through leadership decision- making, organizational design and people development, and through the design and execution of strategic and tactical plans. Mr. Cowie’s experience spans the globe with a focus on China and Asia, North America and Europe. Delivering creative and innovative teaching approaches built on real-life experiences and solutions for complex business issues.

“betterU is a rare ed-tech that is driven by a passionate team with a global vision and solutions that are starting to take shape. I am excited to join betterU’s Board of Directors to help support and advance their global efforts. I am looking forward to digging deep into the company and helping them grow,” said Duncan Cowie.

About Ambassador Vishnu Prakash, former Envoy to Canada and South Korea

Mr. Prakash is a lawyer (gold medalist) by training and a diplomat by profession, retired as India’s High Commissioner to Canada in November 2016, after over 35 years in the saddle, as an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer. Hitherto, he was Ambassador to South Korea, Official Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs and Consul General to Shanghai. He also held various positions at Indian Missions in Tokyo, New York, Moscow, Islamabad, Vladivostok and Cairo. Mr. Prakash did a sabbatical with the ‘Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies’ in Hawaii (USA) in 1996. In 2013, he was conferred an Honorary Doctoral degree in Business Administration by Tongmyong University, Busan (South Korea) and also recognized as the ‘Ambassador of the Year, 2014’ by the Asia Society, Korea Center.

Presently Mr. Prakash is a foreign affairs analyst, speaker, columnist and commentator. His areas of interest span the Indo-Pacific region, including North-east Asia (China, Japan and Koreas), ASEAN & South Asia, the US, Canada and Israel.

Ambassador Prakash is a sought-after speaker, across the country, by colleges, Universities and training institutions especially on Indian diplomacy and international issues. He was recognized as an “Outstanding Diplomat” by PIMR (Prestige Institute of Management and Research), Indore in January 2020.

He has been writing for Hindustan Times, The Korea Times, The Asian Age, ETV Bharat, and The Quint, among other media outlets. Mr. Prakash has been associated with and / or contributing papers / articles for prominent think-tanks like IDSA, Ananta Aspen Centre, ORF, VIF and ICS, to name a few. He has also contributed chapters for publications by IDSA and Indian Foreign Affairs Journal. Amb. Prakash regularly appears as an expert panelist on Indian and international TV channels.

“I have had the opportunity to work with the CEO of betterU for many years and have grown fond of his vision and passion for supporting access to education in my country. I am thrilled to join the Company as a Principle Advisory to the Board of Directors and I will be working closely with all board members and the Company’s leadership to help support their efforts not only in India, but globally as well”, said Ambassador Prakash.

About betterU Education Corp.

betterU is an education-to-employment technology company offering an end-to-end solution leveraging business intelligence to automate skilling, reskilling and upskilling for companies operating on domestic and global scales. If you are looking for support in regards to COVID-19, please visit https://readytogo.betteru.ca/ to download your free COVID-19 Resource Toolkit.

betterU has integrated into its platform the content, technology and support for tailored skills assessments, learning pathways and training modules from 100+ of the world’s leading online education providers. betterU’s eco-system includes detailed job, skill, employer, and educational profiles spanning 3,000+ standardized jobs. betterU’s integrated platform is the most efficient solution to address evolving skilling challenges for employers and employees through the employment lifecycle from entry level to executive. We don’t sell content; we help build better people. 

For more information, please visit https://corporate.betteru.ca/  For more information about betterU’s Enterprise SaaS Program please visit https://readytogo.betteru.ca/

Contact:

Brad Loiselle, CEO
1-613-695-4100

betterU Education Corp.
Investor Relations
Email: [email protected]

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.

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How Does #AI and ML Help In Up-scaling #Edtech? – SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 11:18 AM on Thursday, May 14th, 2020

SPONSOR:  BetterU Education Corp. aims to provide access to quality education from around the world. 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 / Ottolearn launch FREE COVID-19 mobile resource toolkit to fight the global crisis – Click here for more information.

  • Online test preparations is also one of the growing segments in the Indian Ed tech space, almost 70 percent of traditional publishers are digitising their content since they see a sizeable addressable market
  • Students are looking for technology-driven, flexible and convenient options for themselves and these factors are gradually making the prospect of higher education online more appealing for students and professionals.

By Gairika Mitra

India is known as one of the best education markets globally. However, education in India comprises of high costs especially related to textbooks as one is never enough. The founders saw a market opportunity as students restrict their intelligence and score by accessing a limited number of course books simply because it is not affordable and possible to buy all the books available physically.

Thus, KopyKitab helps students whether in school, college or competitive exams aspirants to access the top-selling syllabus digitally through their library. The AI and ML programs also help students access relevant books for their needs.

Amit Shrivastava, Co-founder & CTO, KopyKitab tells us why depending on technology in the education space is a good idea.

The current pandemic has left many topsy turvy. Has this lockdown led to an upsurge in traffic?

Ed tech today has spread its wings far and wide; for KopyKitab, we are growing fast and have seen 69% rise in new users, a 45% increase in reading session and 200% jump in revenue. As students and institutions get more comfortable using Ed tech services and virtual classrooms, they are not shying away from paying for relevant content. We believe that Ed tech has shown the potential to disrupt the entire value chain.

Online test preparations is also one of the growing segments in the Indian Ed tech space, almost 70 percent of traditional publishers are digitising their content since they see a sizeable addressable market. Students are looking for technology-driven, flexible and convenient options for themselves and these factors are gradually making the prospect of higher education online more appealing for students and professionals.

How are you abiding by a different business model, especially when there are plenty of other players in the market?

For KopyKitab, since its inception, we have set out to make education more affordable and accessible. From the day when Ed tech was yet to go through a technological disruption and textbooks especially Higher Education, costs a lot, and students, especially from Tier II and Tier III towns, had limited access, we understood the pain points from our own experience as both the founders have grown up in small towns and did their schooling. At that time, due to lack of technology, getting study books access was a task as compared to our peers in Tier I and Metros. The KopyKitab model is aimed at making education a level playing field for students anywhere in India

We have mastered the content acquisition and distribution, and adopted a mobile-first strategy and have managed to recreate an offline studying experience for students online, at a much lower cost, our focus areas are into higher education and competitive exams sector and we are already very near to creating a niche for ourselves.

As students need everything quickly on the go, KopyKitab is exactly giving them that, bite-sized learning on their mobiles.

How areAI and ML contributing to your cause?

At KopyKitab, we are using Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning programs that help track users consumption patterns and make more accurate recommendations based on language, city, campus, grade level, renting history, etc. It also helps us identify specific student’s needs

AI and ML programs have helped us increase the reach even in the remotest areas. Since, about 68 percent of our users hail from Tier II and III towns, with maximum demand coming from Patna, Jaipur, and Indore; five percent are overseas users, while the remaining comes from metros and Tier-I cities

The most critical and latest technology which we started catering in the COVID-19 pandemic is P2P (Peer to Peer) with structured learning options & Video Connectivity, be it teacher to students, coach to the students & content publishers to students, which is creating a highly optimised beneficial learning environment

Also, this will continue to be the base for all the tech platforms since it provides digital connection between people

How important do you think is it for people to rely on technology? Are there any major follies per se?

The future will undoubtedly be technology-driven, as stakeholders in the education ecosystem look to make access easier and provide flexibility in the learning environment. All this while keeping in mind that social distancing will be the norm going forward, technology will be the front runner for this connection be it WFH, P2P, Group connect as mentioned above

One of the major follies per se will be the absence or scarcity of direct human connect leading to longer time for execution for all the verticals

Could you acquaint us with your funding scenario?

In 2018, KopyKitab was backed by ECF, a Rs 100 crore fund registered under the SEBI. The fund’s marquee investors include Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and Gray Matters Capital, both US-based international investors in the education sector.

KopyKitab has also raised about $2 million from Pactolus Singapore, CBA Capital (ECF) and well-known angels including Praveen Gandhi, Paula Mariwala (Stanford Angels), Mohit Dubey (Carwale), Satyen Kothari (Citrus Pay), and others

What are KopyKitab’s upcoming plans like?

Our immediate priority would be to continue to serve our subscribers i.e students with more content in easy and engaging forms. We saw a surge in our traffic since the lockdown started in Mar and our aim to serve them with the best learning options.

For longer-term, providing P2P and Video-based access for our students, teachers/coaches and publishers to continue education without much interference because of the current scenario.

A piece of advice for others?

My advice would be to think long term solutions in digital/online space and if possible convert part of your business to digital/internet driven. Also, provide more accessibility between employees and customers using technology as base.

Source: https://www.expresscomputer.in/news/how-does-ai-and-ml-help-in-up-scaling-edtech/55638/

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Online education now a new normal for govt, #Edtech platforms – SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 10:39 AM on Thursday, May 7th, 2020

SPONSOR:  BetterU Education Corp. aims to provide access to quality education from around the world. 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 / Ottolearn launch FREE COVID-19 mobile resource toolkit to fight the global crisis – Click here for more information.

Online education now a new normal for govt, edtech platforms

  • As millions of kids take online school classes from home globally including in India, government along with private education sector have a great responsibility to offer online e-Learning to more than 60 million college students and 1.5 billion school students worldwide, experts said on Thursday

Private colleges in India which were already offering online education for last two decades now have a massive surge in e-Learning demand to meet.

“e-Learning or online education is the new normal. In future, we will see the proliferation of information technology tools and gadgets, post-COVID-19. But internet and broadband will remain an issue,” said Professor NK Goyal, Vice Chairman, ITU APT India and former adviser of Gujarat Technological University.

If e-Learning apps like BYJU’s and Khan academy are targeting schools, others like Adda24x7 are offering specialised coaching for entrance exams like IIT and JEE.

Robust connectivity is undoubtedly critical for the success of e-Learning.

According to Rajan S Mathews, DG, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), post COVID-19, there will be a surge in online education by schools and colleges in the country.

“The telecom industry is fully prepared with 99.9 per cent network capacity. The telecom companies have taken appropriate measures to meet the surge in traffic due to online education and other online activities using telecom infrastructure,” said Mathews.

Union Human Resources and Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank recently said that the government is offering a slew of educational applications and platforms for both school and higher education institutes.

In addition to teachers, Nishank urged parents and students to make maximum use of online education to ensure their academic continuity is maintained.

The World University of Design (WUD) claims that it has collected materials for online learning across its courses during the last one year.

“WUD is using technology-enabled AI, supervision technologies and video conferencing and other tools to enable virtual learning. This includes a mix of online platforms for sharing files, conducting meetings and lectures in association with online services iamp; resource providers like Coursera, Bloomsbury, EBSCO etc. as partners in its strategy,” said Dr Sanjay Gupta, Vice Chancellor, World University of Design (WUD).

Source: https://www.newkerala.com/news/2020/80541.htm

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B2B edtech platform #Classplus bags $9m in series A funding – SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 1:23 PM on Tuesday, May 5th, 2020

SPONSOR:  BetterU Education Corp. aims to provide access to quality education from around the world. 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 / Ottolearn launch FREE COVID-19 mobile resource toolkit to fight the global crisis – Click here for more information.

B2B edtech platform Classplus bags $9m in series A funding

  • India’s Classplus, an edtech firm that enables offline coaching institutes to take their businesses online, said it has raised US$9 million in a series A round led by early-stage VC firm RTP Global.

By: Miguel Cordon

India’s Classplus, an edtech firm that enables offline coaching institutes to take their businesses online, said it has raised US$9 million in a series A round led by early-stage VC firm RTP Global.

Existing investors Blume Ventures, Spiral Ventures, Strive, and Sequoia Capital India’s accelerator, Surge, also participated in the round, according to a statement.

Classplus co-founders Bhaswat Agarwal (left) and Mukul Rustagi / Photo credit: Classplus

Hundreds of thousands of offline tutoring units in India, commonly called coaching centers, act as the primary source of academic support for more than 70 million students taking private lessons in the country every year.

Classplus aims to digitize this market by helping tutors run all their communications, payments, assessments, and learning programs online on their smartphones. AD. Remove this ad space by subscribing. Support independent journalism.

Its mobile-centric solution also acts as a digital distribution platform for educational content and products, enabling tutors to set up ecommerce channels to make video content and online assessments available to students.

The startup said it plans to use the new funds to improve its technology and expand its product offerings. It also looks to bolster its product, engineering, and business teams as well as make strategic hires for some leadership roles to drive its expansion.

According to Mukul Rustagi, the co-founder and CEO of Classplus, India is home to the largest after-school tuition market globally. “As national examinations move online, so must after-school tuition practices […],” he added.

Rustagi, along with co-founder Bhaswat Agarwal, launched Classplus in 2018. Since then, the startup has served over 1 million students across more than 70 Indian cities, with upward of 3,500 coaching centers using its technology.

Source: https://www.techinasia.com/classplus-bags-9m

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#EdTech firm Byju’s could become India’s second most valued startup – SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 3:28 PM on Monday, May 4th, 2020

SPONSOR:  BetterU Education Corp. aims to provide access to quality education from around the world. 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 / Ottolearn launch FREE COVID-19 mobile resource toolkit to fight the global crisis – Click here for more information.

EdTech firm Byju’s could become India’s second most valued startup

By Nitesh Kumar

  • Byju’s the Bengaluru-based ed-tech startup  has been through numerous rounds of valuations and this time around it is expected to raise upwards of $400 million in fresh capital at a $10 billion, reports suggest. 

What started off as a penchant for simple, yet effective teaching methods by Byju Raveendran, Founder of Byju’s, could now become India’s second most valued startup, if it manages to raise fresh capital.  

The startup has witnessed a marked increase in the app downloads and learners due to the ongoing nationwide Covid-19 lockdown. It had earlier received an investment from Tiger Global and General Atlantic that stood around $300 million to $350 million and was valued at $8 billion. 

Back in July 2019, Byju’s was valued at $5.75 billion when it raised $150 million from Qatar Investment Authority and Owl Ventures. 

If this fresh round of funding goes through, Byju’s would become the second most valued startup in India along with budget lodging startup Oyo which is also valued at $10 billion.  Paytm, the financial services firm had raised $1 billion at a $16 billion valuation late last year and currently holds the number one spot.

Industry watchers are suggesting that discussions are afoot though nothing has yet been finalised around the terms. Both Byju’s and Prosus Ventures have been silent about the reports that appeared in sections of the Indian media. 

There were reports that last month Byju’s witnessed 150% increase in traffic on its app and website while adding six million students to its platform during the same period.

Byju’s helps school-going kids understand difficult subjects by illustrating them using familiar objects like pizza and cake. Those pursuing undergraduate and graduate-level courses also learn on the platform.

At the moment, the edtech has over 35 million registered learners of which around 2.4 million are paid users.

Source: https://www.techradar.com/in/news/edtech-firm-byjus-could-become-indias-second-most-valued-startup

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