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betterU $BTRU.ca Trading Reinstated, Message from the CEO, Business Update and Annual General Meeting $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 11:11 AM on Thursday, March 19th, 2020
  • Announced the reinstatement of BTRU to trading effective as of March 23rd , 2020
  • Company is providing an update on the business and notice of the Annual General Meeting of shareholders

OTTAWA, March 19, 2020 – betterU Education Corp. (TSX VENTURE: BTRU, Frankfurt: 5OGA) (the “Company” or “betterU”) has been working with the TSX Venture Exchange to file all necessary outstanding filings and is now pleased to announce the reinstatement of BTRU to trading effective as of March 23rd , 2020. The Company is providing an update on the business and notice of the Annual General Meeting of shareholders.

Message from the CEO –

“Our company has gone through a lot of turmoil over the last year, and I want to thank all of you – our shareholders and extended stakeholders – for weathering this storm with us. The good news is that we are emerging stronger – more operationally and commercially focused – than ever. While the company’s trading was suspended over the last six-months we redoubled our efforts to build value for the Company and our shareholders.

I am pleased to announce the official launch of our enterprise B2B SaaS platform for skills development called ‘Ready-To-Go”, which is the first mobile platform on the market to bring together everything an employer needs to continually assess and skill any employee from entry level to executive in an integrated manner. Ready-To-Go is proving valuable to corporate customers globally, and we will be announcing contracts with companies in Canada, US, India and beyond in the coming months.  Ready-To-Go completely aligns with our founding vision to provide best in class education-to-employment solutions for individuals and companies globally. What is different from the past was the realization while in stealth mode over the last few months, that we are not in the business of selling courses, we are in the business of building better people (hence our brand ‘betterU’). As such we have shifted our business model away from a pay-per-course (transactional) model to a pay-per-employee (software-as-a-service) model – whereby employers pay monthly subscriptions per employee for continual skills improvement and tracking.

This simple shift in framing – which is both on brand and on mission – is resonating strongly with public sector partners, private enterprise customers, and with individuals as end-user beneficiaries. While our focus has become more global in nature, we continue to maintain dedicated staff and skilling platforms for India, which inspired all of our hard work up to this point. There is still a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we now have a solid foundation to become a more sustainable company.”  Brad Loiselle, President and CEO betterU.

Business UpdateThe following are additional updates on the business:

  • Cancelled Shares for Debt – As previously reported on July 26th, 2019 and November 29, 2019 as part of ongoing efforts to reduce the Company’s debt and operational liabilities that its board of directors had approved the settlement of $125,000 of debt through the issuance of common shares of the Company (the “Debt Settlement”). The Company had since decided not to move forward with the Debt Settlement due to the downward pressure of the stock price and the level of dilution it would have created. The Company continues to look at debt reduction options.
     
  • Board approved restructuring plan – On December 2, 2019 betterU’s board of directors approved a plan to restructure the Company’s existing debts and liabilities in efforts to deleverage its balance sheet. The restructuring would take place over the course of 2020 i n connection with a planned subordinated secured convertible debenture offering and subsequent private equity placement to fund a global rollout of the Company’s Enterprise SaaS skilling platform and also convert or otherwise pay down the Company’s currently existing liabilities to a sustainable level.
     
  • betterU Enterprise SaaS Platform ‘Ready-To-Go’ – is fully operational and has been showcased to multiple corporate clients in Canada, USA, UK and India. The Company has begun contracting with several enterprise users, which will be announced in the week to come. betterU has built over the last several months a database from interested parties of 400+ Directors of Learning and Development, VPs and HR heads from companies around the world. To support such growing demand the Company would first have to raise additional capital through its planned subordinated secured debenture offering. For more details about betterU’s recently launched Enterprise SaaS ‘Ready-To-Go’ platform, please visit  https://readytogo.betteru.ca/
     
  • Partnerships – Adding to our existing content partnerships encompassing tens of thousands of courses from 100+ of the world’s leading online education and training providers, betterU has been expanding its offering of assessment tools required to support employers in determining their employee skill gaps.  We are pleased to announce the Company has entered a partnership with Cyprus firm Byrq to support betterU’s Enterprise SaaS Platform for pre-hiring candidates. With a proven I/O psychology framework that is scientifically validated and EEOC compliant, betterU will now be able to measure cognitive skills including numerical, verbal, problem solving and attention to detail as well as 16 personality traits. betterU is also pleased to announce they have entered a partnership with USA based firm eSkill, providing betterU with access to 600+ assessments across job roles, subject base and modular. This partnership enables betterU to support entire departments and job roles across organizations in determining the skills required per employee and mapping them to their skills on betterU’s Enterprise SaaS Platform Ready-To-Go.
  • Corporate Portal –  betterU has developed and launched a corporate website  https://corporate.betteru.ca/, that provides access to more details about betterU’s history, leadership, 2020 focus, Investor Relations and more information on the Company’s ongoing activities. betterU’s corporate website will support more visibility, transparency and access to current and relevant details about how the business is moving forward.  Please visit the site regularly so that you are kept current.
     
  • Stock Option Grants – The following stock options were issued to an insider on December 13th 2017, Positive Venture Group for 125,000 at an exercise price of $0.335 for a 5 year term, with 1/3rd allowed to exercise on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd anniversary date.
     
  • AGORA Internet Relations Corp. – The Company has issued the following number of shares in connection with settlement of $56,500 owed to Agoracom for marketing services according to the terms of the agreement disclosed on April 12, 2017.          
 
  Marketing ServicesPrice per ShareNumber of Shares  
 15-Mar-17$11,3000.4525,111 
 15-Jun-17$11,3000.5719,824 
 15-Sep-17$11,3000.3829,736 
 15-Dec-17$11,3000.3829,736 
 15-Mar-18$11,3000.7914,303 
 Total $56,500 118,710 
 
  • Annual General Meeting (“AGM”) Notice – Take notice that the annual general meeting (the “Meeting”) of shareholders of betterU Education Corporation (the “Corporation”) will be held at 1 Hunt Club Rd, Ottawa, ON K1V 1B9 on Thursday May 28th, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. (Ottawa time) for the following purposes:
  1. To receive the financial statements of the Corporation for its fiscal year ended March 31st 2019 and the report of the auditor thereon;
  2. To elect directors of the Corporation for the ensuing year;
  3. To appoint an auditor of the Corporation for the ensuing year;
  4. To consider and if thought fit to pass, with or without variation, an ordinary resolution to approve the Corporation’s Stock Option Plan allowing the granting of up to 10% of the Corporation’s issued and outstanding common shares at any time; and
  5. To transact such other business as may properly come before the Meeting or any adjournment thereof.

The Corporation has elected to use the notice-and-access (“Notice-and-Access”) provisions under National Instrument 54-101 Communications with Beneficial Owners of Securities of a Reporting Issuer and National Instrument 51-102 Continuous Disclosure Obligations to distribute Meeting materials to shareholders. Notice-and-Access is a new set of rules that allow issuers to post electronic versions of proxy-related materials on SEDAR and on one additional website, rather than mailing paper copies to shareholders. Shareholders have the right to request hard copies of any proxy-related materials posted online by the Corporation under Notice-and-Access.

Meeting materials, including the Circular, will be available under the Corporation’s profile at www.sedar.com and also at https://corporate.betteru.ca/ by April 29th 2020. The Corporation will provide to any shareholder, upon request to the Corporation’s transfer agent, a paper copy of the Circular and any financial statements or management discussion and analysis of the Corporation filed with the applicable securities regulatory authorities during the past year. In order to allow reasonable time for you to receive and review a paper copy of the Circular or other document prior to the proxy deadline, you should make your request for a paper copy by April 13th 2020.

A shareholder who is unable to attend the Meeting in person and who wishes to ensure that such shareholder’s shares will be voted at the Meeting is requested to complete, date and sign the form of proxy for the Meeting, or voting information form (“VIF”), and deliver the form of proxy, or VIF, in accordance with its instructions. 

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

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.

IMPORTANT: #betterU $BTRU.ca Provides Free #COVID19 Toolkit

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 2:50 PM on Wednesday, March 18th, 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. Click here for more information.

FROM THE DESK OF BRAD LOISELLE:

I hope you are well.  betterU, in partnership with several of our content partners, have decided to assemble a COVID-19 All-In-One resource toolkit available on mobile through betterU’s Ready-To-Go platform. We have decided to make it available for FREE to support you, your families, coworkers, employees, friends and our communities. We want to get this in the hands of as many people as possible so feel free to share the link.

Simple go to https://readytogo.betteru.ca/get-started/ to start the process. It is very simple! The COVID-19 package will be automatically added to your profile. 

The noise of the media is creating confusion, fear and panic, while becoming more difficult to determine what is true or false. The app includes access to all the most relevant COVID-19 information assembled from leading sources around the world such as the World Health Organization, CDC and more. It includes content in the form of videos, text, PDFs, graphics and links. It also includes resources to support your personal well-being as well as professional challenges of working from home. We will be adding more content to continue to support community needs.  

Be well, be safe and stay informed.

Brad

Indian #Edtech industry to grow at an incredible rate in 2020 – SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 12:53 PM on Tuesday, March 17th, 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. Click here for more information.

Indian edtech industry to grow at an incredible rate in 2020

  • Not everyone has access to quality academic resources at school, but more and more people have a phone in their hands nowindicating how edtech is helping democratize education
  • At the same time, the consumer base is increasing phenomenally, paving way for opportunities not just in the academic space, but in vocational courses and skill development as well

With a robust rise in smartphone ownership and internet adoption, learning has become more personalized, convenient, and all-encompassing. Not everyone has access to quality academic resources at school, but more and more people have a phone in their hands nowindicating how edtech is helping democratize education. At the same time, the consumer base is increasing phenomenally, paving way for opportunities not just in the academic space, but in vocational courses and skill development as well.

AMIDST ALL THESE DEVELOPMENTS, HERE ARE SOME TRENDS THAT SIGNIFY HOW THE EDTECH INDUSTRY IN INDIA WILL CONTINUE GROWING AT AN INCREDIBLE RATE IN 2020, AND BEYOND:

With the proliferation of smartphones, there has been a significant shift towards mobile-first solutions and products. In the edtech space, mobile-first approach will become central for learner experience. There are many effective ways for mobile learning to be tapped into which can provide consumers an enhanced experience within a short-time span. Because of this and other such factors, mobile-first learning products will explode in the country’s edtech space.

There lies a massive opportunity in the space of vernacular content. A report by Google India and KPMG estimated that as much as 73% of the Indian internet users are going to interact in a regional language by 2021. Amid this, having an English-only approach for the platform will limit the consumer base to a significant extent. Therefore, there is a lot of scope for business in the vernacular market, and further scope for them to play a role in bridging the country’s digital divide.

Indians are more than willing to pay for digital services now. Due to a rise in disposable income, there has been certain income elasticity towards expenditure on education-related products. This indicates how across various income levels, Indian consumers are willing to invest in value-added online learning products and platforms. The ‘freemium’ model has also led to the rise of paid models by facilitating free trials for better decision-making on the consumers’ end.

These are some of the several innovations and developments taking place in various fields of edtech, leading to new delivery methods, improvement in student engagement tactics, democratized access to education, personalized experiences, and more. India has a large consumer base and there are diverse categories of learners, learning modes, courses, and outcomes that entrepreneurs in the edtech space, or edupreneurs’ can explore. With our classrooms, workplaces, and job markets changing owing to the rapidly emerging technologies, edtech has become all the more relevant today, and will continue to positively impact more and more people across the country in 2020, and beyond.

Authored article by Micha Borkowski, CEO and co-founder of Brainly, an edutech startup.

Source: https://www.covaipost.com/education/indian-edtech-industry-to-grow-at-an-incredible-rate-in-2020/?__cf_chl_jschl_tk__=0627c64727cee43a87923430ee1e4e3c4eb780e8-1584450527-0-AerzakfTmf8uESW8-t5AfnXqFj0qgxEQqwf9goj0MHZ9orDC55Bg_OyUOYIg2ITgp9MsiXswacWkLJk5iZ6hgmzPk1oNUrYctq8ttrPtNyGjJPkRJNxcSpi1xPKHlRBspmpB1xQwqfADabPHAO9dmnG193H6WHtAIR76QdnpEUD5LGjftT6mSFfEreulK-6ZzfIM35C1EKpy0hRsllAm2Qv2xctyK8t04kcsWNqPAU9Zcxj8SD835Zg_rhzADSaUKYphp17QToVvJ6FWJbCKSqMJE77DESY7at-8r8WcpdFdpO6uY-lIBeA8BZ9a4U0v-ycAEpupu68pCXJobNW0NYCuT1MtZu4tyUE2lq7AQlf5yMWkSyQOK6ByJhWvLaftEA

Can #coronavirus do for #edtech what demonetisation did for digital payments in India? – SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 4:43 PM on Monday, March 16th, 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. Click here for more information.

Can coronavirus do for edtech what demonetisation did for digital payments in India?

  • The Covid-19 pandemic has forced several schools and colleges across India to temporarily close. In Delhi alone, over two million kids are being forced to stay at home with primary schools shut until March 31.
  • With fresh cases being reported each day, there are expectations that more schools and colleges will be closed in the coming weeks.

By Ananya Bhattacharya

On Nov. 8, 2016, digital payments companies became mainstream in India overnight after the government suddenly decided to demonetise two high-value currency notes. Now, education technology (edtech) firms are hoping for an encore in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced several schools and colleges across India to temporarily close. In Delhi alone, over two million kids are being forced to stay at home with primary schools shut until March 31. With fresh cases being reported each day, there are expectations that more schools and colleges will be closed in the coming weeks.

Edtech companies are jumping to make the most of the situation, offering free access to their courses during a time that typically flags off the exam season.

But overnight success might be hard to come for these platforms, experts said.

“While a smartphone is good enough for browsing, social media, and so on, for studies, assignments, and projects, it doesn’t suffice,” Prateek Shukla, CEO & co-founder Bengaluru-based coding bootcamp Masai School, told Quartz. “A stable internet and electricity connection is the biggest challenge.” Power outages are still very frequent across most Indian cities, especially in smaller towns.

And that is just one of the many hurdles. Companies, though, are going all out to make hay.

Wooing India

On March 11, Bengaluru-based Byju’s, the world’s biggest edtech firm, said it was making all its learning programmes for students in classes 1 through 12 free until April-end. Soon after, rival Toppr offered free access to its live and video classes for school kids until March 31, and Unacademy announced 20,000 free live classes for candidates looking to prep for entrance exams for union public service commission, banking, railways, and more.

“We want learners to utilise this time…We will support the education system in every way possible to weather the storm,” said Gaurav Munjal, co-founder and CEO of Unacademy. Toppr said it will consider extending the free access for students if schools don’t reopen after March.

Edtech is already well equipped to handle a possible surge in demand, said Akash Singhal, founder & CEO of edtech startup Illumnus. Teachers producing online lessons have already been working remotely, so there is no additional cost in producing lessons.

The initiatives are already bringing in gains.

Noida-based Gradeup has seen a 25% uptick in daily enrolments since it doubled the number of free video on its platform in light of the coronavirus outbreak.

Source: https://qz.com/india/1817115/byjus-toppr-unacademy-ready-for-coronavirus-pandemic/

#Edtech firms offer free access to colleges that is impacted by #Coronavirus – SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 5:12 PM on Thursday, March 12th, 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. Click here for more information.

Edtech firms offer free access to colleges that is impacted by Coronavirus

Beginning Thursday, online learning giant Coursera said it is going to provide every impacted university in the world free access to its course catalogue through ‘Coursera for Campus’ until July 31

  • Beginning Thursday, online learning giant Coursera said it is going to provide every impacted university in the world free access to its course catalogue through ‘Coursera for Campus’ until July 31.

By: Neha Alawadhi & Samreen Ahmad

Online education companies in India and globally are offering their paid programmmes to students — whether in school or pursuing higher education — free of cost because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beginning Thursday, online learning giant Coursera said it is going to provide every impacted university in the world free access to its course catalogue through ‘Coursera for Campus’ until July 31.

“We’re going to make ‘Coursera for Campus’ offering freely available to any college or university in the world that is impacted by coronavirus, in the hope that they can rapidly allow students to start learning and ensure we have minimal impact from coronavirus on the student community,” said Leah Belsky, chief enterprise officer and senior vice-president, Coursera.

Coursera, founded by Stanford Professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, has 48 million registered learners worldwide and offers courses, specialisations, degrees, and certificate programmes online.

The ‘Coursera for Campus’ offers job-relevant online education to students, alumni, faculty, and employees of firms like Mindtree, Tata Communications, Axis Bank, Infosys, Airtel, and Manipal Group.

Indian universities can continue teaching their students online without creating new infrastructure. Coursera’s existing ‘Coursera for Campus’ partners include Manipal Academy of Higher Education, UPES, Shiv Nadar University, KL University, NMIMS, and Pearl Academy.

In India, it has 5 million registered learners, and is adding over 100,000 learners per month.

Universities can sign up to provide their enrolled students with access to more than 3,800 courses and 400 specialisations from Coursera’s top university and industry partners.

Similarly, Indian education technology firms are also offering free classes and course material for students impacted by the novel coronavirus. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.

Edtech firm Byju’s also said it will provide free access to its complete app to school students till the end of April.

Some Indian states like Kerala, Karnataka and New Delhi have already announced the closure of schools.

A UNESCO report states that the education of over 290 million students across 13 countries will be interrupted because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another edtech platform Unacademy said it will conduct close to 20,000 free live classes on its platform, across exam categories like UPSC, banking, railways and so on.

Unacademy claims it has 10,000 educators, 13 million learners, and subscriptions for over 30 exam categories.

Educational Initiatives, a 20-year old edtech company based out of Bengaluru is also offering 60 days free access of Mindspark to all students, so that the school closure due to COVID-19 does not impact their learning.

Mindspark is an artificial intelligence-powered specialised mathematics programme developed for children’s learning.

Similarly, edtech firm Toppr is going to provide free live classes to students in classes 5 to 12.

While it is yet to be seen how effective these measures will be, Coursera’s Belsky said the US education system invested in digitising after events like Hurricane Katrina, which forced school and college students to miss studies for months.

According to some estimates, in New Orleans alone, 110 of the 126 public schools were completely destroyed and students had to be moved to neighbouring states to complete their education.

Source: https://www.business-standard.com/article/education/edtech-firms-offer-free-access-to-colleges-that-is-impacted-by-coronavirus-120031201574_1.html

Digital Learning #Edtech: Can it Solve the Access to Education Problem for Indian Students? – SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 4:20 PM on Wednesday, March 11th, 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. Click here for more information.

Digital Learning: Can it Solve the Access to Education Problem for Indian Students?

  • India is home to the largest youth population in the world.
  • As per recent government statistics, we have an estimated 430 million people under the age of 18.

Author: DQINDIA Online

Digital learning can help tackle existing problems in the education sector such as shortage of skilled teachers, lack of adequate teaching materials and so on.

India is home to the largest youth population in the world. As per recent government statistics, we have an estimated 430 million people under the age of 18. These young minds hold immense potential to build a strong future for themselves and the country. A potential that is often held to ransom by an education system marred by outmoded methods of teaching, disproportionate student to teacher ratio, a shortage of skilled teachers and lack of adequate teaching materials.

At a time when technology is transforming every other aspect of our existence, it is only natural that we turn to tech tools to disrupt the way we learn. A lack of access and resources emerges as a constant stumbling block in our youth’s pursuit of education – a problem that can be tackled by modernising the education system through digital learning. Here’s how:

Education beyond Boundaries

Digital content and e-learning can bring entire teaching modules to your doorstep through smart devices, making it possible for students to continue working toward completing their education even if they jump off the path of traditional learning. With a boom in cheaper data and devices, this mode of learning proves especially effective in pursuit of higher education or career-oriented skills. Access to online learning opportunities through remote classes, webinars and online academies can accord equal learning opportunities to students in Tier II and III cities as well as rural areas where skilled educators in one’s desired field of study may not be available.

Personalised Learning

The advent of deep data analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, personalised learning has become a tangible reality. These tech tools allow enable an identification of student goals – whether it is securing merit, landing jobs or simply amassing knowledge – and create educational content to suit these goals. This promotes a truly personalised approach toward learning. With the inclusion of edtech networks and multimedia in education, learning and teaching methods have evolved greatly in their methodology, style and content.

Learning on the Go

Gadgets are an integral part of the youth’s lifestyle today. From shopping to entertainment and social interactions, they seek everything on their finger tips and on the go. Their approach toward education and learning is no exception to this tendency. Digital learning allows them to consume educational content in a format they’re more comfortable in and at a place and setting of their choosing.

Affordability

The cost of higher education in India is steep. By comparison, specialised online course are far more affordable. If you factor in the costs of moving to and living in a big city for students from Tier II and III cities, small towns and rural areas, professional online courses don’t cost a fraction of brick-and-mortar set ups. It is for this reason that India is fast emerging as the second biggest market for MOOCs or open online courses, after the US. This new educational revolution presents great opportunity to help the youth access high-quality education and training, at affordable price points, from the comfort of their homes.

Job Readiness

The higher education in India essentially revolves around securing a stable – ideally, well-paying – job. With easy access to e-learning platforms and digital content, students can access the right kind of content in a format fit for their preferred mode of consumption and be better equipped to meet this goal. For instance, the same curriculum can be easily tweaked to suit academic and competitive purposes in a cost-effective manner in the e-book format.

Future-Ready Education

The world around us is changing at a lightning fast pace, thanks to the constant eruptions of the technology front. Sadly, most of the traditional forums of learning – be it schools, colleges or universities – find themselves lagging behind when it comes to tailoring the course content as per the changing demands of the times we live in. Besides, overhauling entire course curriculums can often a slow, time-consuming process. In such a scenario, professionally tailored online courses can be a bankable alternative in amassing skills training that contributes to employability and is in line with the learners’ interests.

It is undisputable that the future of education will be defined by digital content and learning. Students in India can ride this wave to tide over the inherent flaws in our education system and set themselves up for success in their chosen profession.

Source: https://www.dqindia.com/digital-learning-can-solve-access-education-problem-indian-students/

For #Edtech startups, it’s raining money – SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 11:52 AM on Monday, March 9th, 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. Click here for more information.

For edtech startups, it’s raining money

Tracxn data reveals that Bengaluru-based companies attracted the lion’s share (about $944 million) of investments in the edtech space in the last one year, the highest across cities in India.

By Debojyoti Ghosh

  • Education-technology or edtech companies have mastered the art of wooing investors.
  • The numbers are telling.
  • In less than three months into the new year, edtech ventures have garnered a whopping $686.32 million in 21 funding rounds, a steep surge from $450 million in 87 rounds in the entire 2019, according to data from analytics firm Tracxn.

The data reveals that Bengaluru-based companies attracted the lion’s share (approximately $944 million) of investments in the edtech space in the last one year, the highest across cities in India.

According to data Fortune India has collected, Mumbai-based startups were next in line: raising $109.3 million during the same period. Startups based in Gurugram raised a total of $33.19 million, coming in third. The data includes funding rounds between January 1, 2019, and February 29, 2020.

This year alone, Bengaluru-headquartered Byju’s raised about $500 million, says Tracxn, at an estimated valuation of close to $8 billion. Last month, smaller crosstown rival Unacademy raised $110 million in a funding round led by Facebook and General Atlantic. At the same time, Bengaluru-based interactive online tutoring platform Vedantu raised $24 million, led by global venture capital firm GGV Capital.

Can this buoyancy be sustained?

In the last few years, edtech companies have ramped up their interactive online tutoring content, targeting school students and candidates preparing for competitive examinations and government jobs across metros and tier 2 cities.

RedSeer Consulting, a research and advisory firm focussed on the consumer internet market, noted in its last year’s report that the first wave of edtech companies saw players focussing on high-quality content and live streaming, most often catering to metro/tier 1 users and in English as the major medium of instruction.

“However, our research on learners across market segments (K12, test prep, professional learning) clearly shows a strong need for vernacular education—something which most offline and online platforms fail to provide adequately as of now. Thus, there is a strong underlying need for digital education in vernacular languages,” the RedSeer report said.

Players such as Gurugram-based Doubtnut target students in smaller cities providing learning content in vernacular languages. In January, Doubtnut raised $15 million in a Series A funding round, led by Chinese investor Tencent. Existing investors Omidyar Network India, AET, Japan, Cure.fit co-founder Ankit Nagori, and Sequoia Capital India also participated in the funding round.

Online learning platform Adda247—which provides live video classes, on-demand video courses, mock tests and test prep focussing on examinations for government jobs—also caters to the vernacular segments, particularly the Hindi-speaking belt.

“Across the K12 and professional learning space, players with video lectures have been tailoring to blend English and Hindi in their delivery to drive customer engagement,” RedSeer said.

Other funding announcements this year for edtech startups include Testbook, which in January raised about $8.3 million in a Series B round led by venture capital fund Iron Pillar. The Mumbai-based online preparatory platform provides learning content and test prep for competitive government examinations. Noida-based edtech startup Classplus raised $2.5 million in a pre-Series A funding round from Blume Ventures, Sequoia Capital and others.

With funding available across the various stages of growth, only time will tell if edtech companies can maintain the momentum for the rest of the year.

Source: https://www.fortuneindia.com/bengaluru-buzz/for-edtech-startups-its-raining-money/104233

Tech Reskilling in India a Necessity #Edtech – SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 11:54 AM on Thursday, March 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. Click here for more information.

Tech Reskilling in India a Necessity

  • Behind the AI and data analytics boom, lies the story of a massive talent gap as workforce struggles to remain employable
  • The skills’ shelf life has shortened, with technology changing exponentially over the last decade, skills that were relevant at the beginning of the career have become obsolete

By Kasmin Fernandes

While skill development gets a major chunk of CSR funding, reskilling in India isn’t a priority. Even with the third-largest developer base and a substantial tech-savvy talent pool, India lags behind its peers on major AI indicators. This is despite a thriving startup ecosystem, high-growth companies which have made a substantial investment in setting up CoEs (centres of excellence) and the Government investing in building a robust tech infrastructure.

Behind the AI and data analytics boom, lies the story of a massive talent gap as workforce struggles to remain employable. The skills’ shelf life has shortened, with technology changing exponentially over the last decade, skills that were relevant at the beginning of the career have become obsolete. In order to remain employable, the workforce needs reskilling in India.

Reskilling in India can fill gaps

The rise of edtech companies in India is not surprising, given the huge clamour for continuous learning that has taken root in the professional sphere. This is backed by the rise of emerging technologies — Artificial Intelligence, its subset Machine Learning and Data Science which has spawned a booming job market revolving around new technologies that has substantially transformed India’s IT labour market.

The changing job economy has resulted in new opportunities for the Indian workforce. As estimated by a consulting major,

AI has the potential to add 15% of India’s current gross value in 2035. The booming economy, fuelled by AI and advanced analytics requires more Indians to enter the workforce with a different skill-set. As per estimates, close to 97,000 AI positions lie vacant in India.

However, the challenges are also increasing multifold — on the one hand Indian companies are struggling with disruptions like automation that are redefining jobs and secondly, it is grappling with finding the right talent with the right skillset for AI/ machine learning and data science teams. Meanwhile, the upcoming generation that will enter the workforce soon is fed on an outdated curriculum that hasn’t kept up with the industry’s demands.

What can key players do?

In order to capitalise on these opportunities, IT companies, educators and policymakers need to develop a deeper understanding of the existing workforce, the skill-set required in the future, and the gaps that will need to be addressed. This implies that these three key players need to align the broader economic developer agenda with the shifting job market and work towards building a strong talent that has the baseline and digital skills required for current landscape.

The government’s involvement in reskilling in India is a must. A joint report by industry body NASSCOM and FICCI level says that the IT workforce will become obsolete without government involvement. Policy makers will have to assess secondary and postsecondary education and align it with the skills that are required for tomorrow. Many leading Indian IT majors have undertaken employer-training initiatives, pre-employment training and have also provided their own courseware.

Collectively, the key stakeholders can foster a workforce development ecosystem and provide domain specific training

with a job-first approach. Given this scenario — educational stakeholders have made a very strong business case for reskilling in India and have actively partnered with renowned educational institutions to launch technical certifications and degree programmes tailored to fill the skill gap.

Source: https://thecsrjournal.in/tech-reskilling-india/

Education Is the New Healthcare, and Other Trends Shaping #Edtech Investing – SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 12:45 PM on Wednesday, March 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. Click here for more information.

Education Is the New Healthcare, and Other Trends Shaping Edtech Investing

By John Rogers

  • Private equity and venture funds have invested record sums into the global education sector—$30 billion in the past five years across K-12 and workplace learning
  • Since 2017, investment has accelerated with $14 billion allocated, according to research firm HolonIQ.

Despite the influx of capital, employers, schools and policymakers are only just beginning to harness the sector’s advancements in the delivery, accessibility and effectiveness of education technology. As adoption of these products and services increases around the world, so too does the opportunity for investors and entrepreneurs to generate positive social and economic impact alongside financial returns.

Here are five key trends to consider as education enters a new decade:

1. In the workplace, education is the new healthcare.

In the 1940’s and ‘50s, employers seeking to attract the best workers offered healthcare benefits. In the early 2000’s, employers offered free snacks and installed foosball tables.

Those perks have lost their luster, and with help from the Affordable Care Act, even healthcare is becoming less of a differentiator. Today, leading corporations hope to drive employee engagement, retention and advancement through providing education.

In 2014, Starbucks and Arizona State University pioneered a new kind of partnership. By offering high-quality, affordable online courses and programs, coupled with tuition assistance, ASU and Starbucks enabled thousands to become degree holders—debt free. In a recent interview with CNBC, Starbuck’s CEO Kevin Johnson pointed to the College Achievement Plan as a driver for sales growth, because employee engagement yields customer engagement.

To broaden this workplace education initiative, The Rise Fund partnered with ASU and other leading online universities to launch InStride, providing valuable educational credentials to the employees of forward-thinking corporations. In bringing affordable education to the workplace, companies like InStride, Guild, Degreed and EdAssist are addressing the biggest issues in higher education: career relevance and student debt.

2. Our schools are facing a mental health crisis.

Today, 95 percent of teenagers have access to a smartphone, and the average teen is now spending more than 7 hours per day on their screens, including over 1.5 hours on social media. But the proliferation of technology does not come without concerns. These tools can amplify feelings of loneliness and serve as a platform for cyberbullying.

Mental health problems, especially among teens, increased significantly in the last decade. Seventy percent of teenagers identify mental health as a major issue, worse than drug addiction, and gangs. Suicide is now the second-leading cause of death among 10- to 24-year-olds, and the rate has tripled over the last 10 years. In a Harvard Medical School study of 67,000 college students across more than 100 institutions, 1 out of 5 students surveyed said that they had thought about suicide.

“Teachers and administrators are hungry for effective ways to teach social and emotional learning,” says former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Who will pay for these needed services? Most are paid by schools or districts, but other funding approaches are emerging. One of our portfolio investments, EverFi, finds corporate partners to fund their bullying prevention programs in schools. Other companies, like Presence Learning, are experimenting with models that may be reimbursed by health insurance, while Aperture Education helps schools to find grant funding for their services.

3. Schools spent a decade buying technology. Now they want it to work.

Education technology reached a tipping point in the last decade. Broadband penetration in K-12 schools reached over 98 percent, while low-cost computing devices like Chromebooks have proliferated in classrooms.

This has laid the infrastructure to support new instructional tools, many built by new companies that have emerged to compete with traditional print publishers. HolonIQ estimates that global spending on digital education tools surpassed $150 billion last year, and will double by 2025.

But purchasing is not proof that something works. Even more concerning: many tools may simply be gathering (digital) dust. A recent study by the University of Pennsylvania, only 30 percent of edtech licenses are actually used.

In any future economic downturn, expect technology providers who fail to show evidence of improvement—let alone usage—to get axed. Those seeking to avoid this fate would do well to invest in proving that their products work. DreamBox, (another portfolio company) invests in efficacy research led by independent third-parties including Harvard and SRI International. Lexia Learning, a subsidiary of Rosetta Stone, employs a team of PhDs who send their research out for peer review.

Recently updated federal guidelines have also raised the bar for efficacy evidence that educational services should demonstrate before public funds can be used to purchase them.

4. There is growing international demand for English-language learning.

Duolingo made headlines in December when it raised $30 million at a $1.5 billion valuation, reaching the “unicorn” milestone just seven years after the company launched. While it offers courses in several languages, a big growth driver internationally is English language learning, where it competes with online providers Babbel, Busuu and Rosetta Stone.

As businesses have expanded globally through tech and business process outsourcing, English language proficiency has become an important path to economic opportunity. According to studies by the World Bank, in India, those fluent in English earn 34 percent more on average than those who are non-fluent, while in Nigeria, the English-language wage premium is 40 percent.

In emerging markets, English language proficiency is a core component of what many parents look for as they seek high-quality schools for their children. That demand has fueled the growth of multi-billion dollar, dual-language K-12 platforms like Cognita, GEMS and Nord Anglia in markets around the world.

5. Will edtech be caught up in a backlash against ‘big tech’ over data privacy?

Rising edtech expenditures and privacy concerns have caught the eye of regulators. A group of U.S. Senators recently requested 50 technology companies—including education technology providers—to provide written responses to questions about student privacy safeguards. These inquiries come at a time when many believe the enforcement of federal education regulation is increasingly lax.

Edtech providers are as vulnerable as their peers in other industries. At a major cybersecurity conference last fall, an 18-year-old student detailed vulnerabilities he found in Blackboard, one of the most widely-used learning management systems in the country.

As U.S. edtech companies expand globally, they will also find themselves subject to stricter European data privacy laws, like GDPR. They may also find themselves at the mercy of sudden changes in national policies, such as the restrictions recently imposed in China on foreign investment in K-12 programs.

2020 and Beyond

The Rise Fund has made investments across these themes, and as we enter the next decade, the correlation between educational attainment and economic opportunity will continue to drive the demand for tools and services that bridge these two goals. For investors and entrepreneurs who choose wisely, opportunities abound for attractive returns and impact through the power of education.

Source: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-02-28-education-is-the-new-healthcare-and-other-trends-shaping-edtech-investing

As exit scene evolves, Indian #Edtech startups find local buyers – SPONSOR: BetterU Education Corp. $BTRU.ca $ARCL $CPLA $BPI $FC.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 4:21 PM on Tuesday, March 3rd, 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. Click here for more information.

As exit scene evolves, Indian tech startups find local buyers

  • Exits often happen at an early stage for small, undisclosed sums
  • Exits are important for the startup ecosystem because investors get returns and VC money can flow back to support new entrepreneurs

By: Malavika Velayanikal

BENGALURU : Funding, product-market fit, growth hacks, being agile, scaling—entrepreneurs obsess about all these and more when they start up. Exits are far from their thoughts, till they suddenly find themselves in a situation where they’re scrambling to get their books in order for an acquisition. It’s best to have an open mind, even if one can’t predict how a startup will fare.

Big deals like Walmart’s $16 billion acquisition of Flipkart in 2018 are as rare as the Comet Halley. Last year’s biggest acquisition was of Yatra by Ebix for $338 million. Most deals are much smaller. Data tracker Tracxn puts the median value of startup acquisitions last year at $20 million, taking into account only the ones where the acquisition price was disclosed.

Exits often happen at an early stage for small, undisclosed sums. CB Insights research shows nearly half of all exits last year were of startups that hadn’t gone beyond seed or series A funding.

Reasons to exit vary. For some, it’s an opportunity to take the money on the table for founders, employees and investors, while placing the innovation in an environment where it can go mainstream and grow bigger. For others, it may just be a better outcome than the startup shutting down or becoming a zombie. Some are acqui-hires, where a startup is acquired for its tech talent rather than a product or service.

“If you’re not able to build a business as a standalone profitable organization or attract the kind of capital needed for a venture funded business, there’s no shame in exploring opportunities in mergers and acquisitions,” says Rohan Malhotra, partner at Good Capital. “Often a missing piece that a small company provides is just what a large company has been looking for and is often beneficial for all the shareholders across the transaction.”

MAKING MONEY FLOW

Exits are important for the startup ecosystem because investors get returns and VC money can flow back to support new entrepreneurs. The Flipkart deal did a lot in that respect, but mid-sized deals are just as vital as outliers.

Many of these represent strategic business acquisition or consolidation. For example, last month Bengaluru-based digital payments startup Instamojo acquired Gurugram’s SaaS startup GetMeAShop, which helps kirana stores get online. One of the significant inbound deals last year was Cisco’s acquisition of Bengaluru-based customer analytics startup CloudCherry, which had raised $16 million in seed and series A funding.

Reliance Industries has taken the lead in corporate acquisitions of startups. Fashion etailer Fynd, website creator Nowfloats, hyperlocal restaurant delivery service Grab, fluid dynamics software maker Sankhyasutra Labs and drone maker Asteria were among its acquisitions last year. Also, an edtech startup it had acquired earlier, Embibe, merged with personalized digital learning app Funtoot. Reliance Jio also acquired Haptik for its AI virtual assistants.

Apart from mergers and acquisitions, early stage investors also get exits from follow-on funding rounds when larger VCs come in. “Investors need liquidity which often comes from secondary transactions,” says Neha Singh, co-founder of Tracxn.

SoftBank’s mega investments in India, starting in 2014, moved the needle the most, preceded by US’ Tiger Global. But the WeWork implosion has put SoftBank on the back foot as it had to write off $4.6 billion from its investment in the office space company. This has put a spanner in the works of late stage deals in recent times, although Indian startups raised a record $14.5 billion last year, according to Tracxn. That’s more than three times the $4.3 billion invested in the slowdown year of 2016, which followed the exuberance of the previous two years.

THE LOCAL CYCLE

“Like investments, exits have also improved along with the quality of entrepreneurs,” says Manish Singhal, founding partner at Pi Ventures. He cites last week’s example of customer engagement platform Freshworks acquiring AnswerIQ, which offers AI-assisted self-service. “The most interesting piece that has moved in the last couple of years is that Indian startups are buying Indian startups,” he says.

The local cycle of investment and exit would reduce dependence on external factors going forward. “What excites me is that people in India are starting to appreciate technology developed in India. That’s why local acquisitions are happening,” he says.

Singhal doesn’t worry about a large number of acquisitions being small pops rather than high value deals. “As an angel investor, if I get a small exit, I will put the money in some more companies. Anything that circulates money in a rather constipated investment scene in India is good for the ecosystem.” Source: https://www.livemint.com/companies/start-ups/as-exit-scene-evolves-indian-tech-startups-find-local-buyers-11583076229165.html