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VIDEO: Transcanna $TCAN.ca Revenue Run Rate Of $24M Will Increase To $90M When 196,000 Sq Ft Facility Comes Online In 2021

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 4:04 PM on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2020
tcan-square
  • $2M CAD Revenue April 2020
  • $24.6M CAD Revenue Run Rate solely from TransCanna test facility
  • $90M Annual Revenue expected from first full year upon completion of 196,000 Sq Ft Daly facility Q3 2021
  • Daly facility will be one of the largest cannabis facilities in California
  • Recently acquired two California companies,
    • High-end award winning edible producer Soldaze
    • Premium indoor cultivator and distributer Lyfted Farms
  • Lyfted Farms products sold in select Cookies Locations – The most recognizable name in high-end Cannabis.
  • 2019 California Cannabis sales over $3B, industry currently fragmented
  • Direct to dispensary model, cutting out the middleman

CLIENT FEATURE: Eyecarrot Innovations $EYC.ca Creating Faster Brains Through Stronger Eyes $EYPT $KALA

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 5:54 PM on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2020
http://www.smallcapepicenter.com/eyc%20square.png

EYC: TSX-V

Trusted and used by some of the world’s top professional sports teams, including:

Why Eyecarrot?

  • Eyecarrot Has Already Started Commercializing Its Vision Therapy Platform
  • Company’s Vision Therapy Products Used In:
    • Over 1,500 Practices
    • 20 Countries
  • Flagship “Binovi” Is State-Of-The-Art Platform
    • Measures 14 Key Vision Skills
    • Essential For Maximizing Brain Performance
    • Shipped Over 400 Binovi Units (April 2020)
    • Goal Is 2,500 Binovi Units (End Of 2020)
  • Signed Sports Vision Partnership With Eli Wilson Goaltending
    • World Leader In Goaltending Development
    • 600 Active Goaltending Camp Participants
    • 50,000 Global Aspiring Goaltenders
  • Closed Major Financing In Q1 2020
  • Eyecarrot is now well positioned to further commercialize and capitalize on massive demand for Vision Therapy and Training For Athletes and Education

Serial Entreprenuer and Former Aurora Cannabis CEO, Terry Booth, Joins Eyecarrot as Executive Chairman

  • Mr. Booth was one of the 2 original founders of Aurora Cannabis Inc. In 2013, he personally provided over $3.0 million in start-up capital to the building of a new from the ground up high quality purpose-built medical cannabis production facility in Mountain View County.
  • Appointed CEO in December 2014, he has skillfully raised Aurora from its infancy into one of the world’s largest and fastest growing cannabis companies, valued at $18B at its peak

THE MARKET OPPORTUNITY

  • Vision Therapy captures 3% of a $36B Yearly Vision Market today
  • Vision Therapy will grow by 22% this year and account for 4% of the $39B Yearly Market by year end
  • Sights are set on disrupting the sports performance industry in 2020 while receiving engagement from leaders within the human performance – sport performance industry
  • The size of the sports performance market reached a value of nearly $488.5B in 2018, having grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.3% since 2014
  • Expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.9% to nearly $614.1B by 2022

WATCH OUR RECENT INTERVIEW

Eyecarrot Innovations is an advertising client of AGORA Internet Relations Corp.

#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/

#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/

PyroGenesis $PYR.ca Enters Negotiations for Supply of Equipment with Iron Ore Pelletization Modeling Client $RTN $NOC $UTX $DDD.ca $SSYS $PRLB

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 2:58 PM on Tuesday, May 19th, 2020
  • Entered into the final stages of negotiation for equipment supply with the major iron ore pelletization client previously disclosed
  • The Client is a multi-billion-dollar international producer of iron ore pellets, one of the largest in the industry, whose name will remain confidential for competitive reasons
  • The Client has over 10 plants each requiring approx. 50 plasma torches

MONTREAL, May 19, 2020 – PyroGenesis Canada Inc. (http://pyrogenesis.com) (TSX-V: PYR) (OTCQB: PYRNF) (FRA: 8PY), a high-tech company, (the “Company”, the “Corporation” or “PyroGenesis”) that designs, develops, manufactures and commercializes plasma atomized metal powder, plasma waste-to-energy systems and plasma torch systems, is pleased to announce today that, further to its press releases dated March 4th and April 30th, 2020, it has now entered into the final stages of negotiation for equipment supply with the major iron ore pelletization client (the “Client”) previously disclosed. The Client is a multi-billion-dollar international producer of iron ore pellets, one of the largest in the industry, whose name will remain confidential for competitive reasons. The Client has over 10 plants each requiring approx. 50 plasma torches.

“This is indeed a very significant development as the Client has accepted the successful completion of the first phase (“First Phase”) in the modeling contract as a basis to move forward for equipment supply,” said Mr. Peter Pascali, CEO and President of PyroGenesis. “This was not entirely unexpected as (i) the balance of the modeling contract was geared to further quantify the benefits of transitioning to plasma, and (ii) the initial stage of negotiations had already begun prior to the First Phase getting underway, and as such it served just to confirm expectations. In management’s opinion, this is moving quickly, particularly in light of the Client’s size, the current pandemic, and how busy they are. This is just one of many discussions taking place with other producers in this, and other industries.”

As previously disclosed, the purpose of this multi-phase modeling contract was to evaluate the performance of PyroGenesis’ proprietary torches in an existing iron ore industrial furnace with the goal of replacing all existing fossil fuel burners with PyroGenesis’ plasma torches. The all-important First Phase was successfully completed as previously disclosed. All modeling phases were to be completed by the end of Q2 2020, and such remains to be the case. The balance of the contract is solely geared to further quantify the benefits of transitioning to plasma.

“There is no guarantee of successful conclusion, nor of the timeframe in which this might occur,” noted Mr. Pascali. “However, things seem to be moving in the right direction, and at a very rapid pace. Since our success with RISE, we have seen a significant increase in interest in using our proprietary torches to reduce greenhouse gases. We continue to find that the proposition to reduce greenhouse gases emissions, and avoid carbon taxes, with a simple bolt-on replacement of current environmentally damaging fossil fuel burners, is too compelling to resist.  That, combined with the environmental pressure these industries are currently under (only recently a new trend has emerged where financial institutions are tying credit facilities and debt issuances to carbon reduction targets for multi-national industrial and mining conglomerates), has contributed significantly to this wave of interest and proposals.”

Pelletization is the process in which iron ore is concentrated before shipment, thus significantly reducing the cost of transportation. In conventional technologies, the process heat is provided by fuel oil or natural gas burners (both environmentally damaging). The combustion, in the burners, of fossil fuels results in the production of greenhouse gases, mainly CO2. Plasma torches, by contrast, utilize renewable electricity and as such offer an environmentally attractive alternative to fossil fuel burners.

About PyroGenesis Canada Inc.

PyroGenesis Canada Inc., a high-tech company, is the world leader in the design, development, manufacture and commercialization of advanced plasma processes and products. We provide engineering and manufacturing expertise, cutting-edge contract research, as well as turnkey process equipment packages to the defense, metallurgical, mining, advanced materials (including 3D printing), oil & gas, and environmental industries. With a team of experienced engineers, scientists and technicians working out of our Montreal office and our 3,800 m2 manufacturing facility, PyroGenesis maintains its competitive advantage by remaining at the forefront of technology development and commercialization. Our core competencies allow PyroGenesis to lead the way in providing innovative plasma torches, plasma waste processes, high-temperature metallurgical processes, and engineering services to the global marketplace. Our operations are ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100D certified, and have been since 1997. PyroGenesis is a publicly-traded Canadian Corporation on the TSX Venture Exchange (Ticker Symbol: PYR) and on the OTCQB Marketplace. For more information, please visit www.pyrogenesis.com.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements containing the words “may”, “plan”, “will”, “estimate”, “continue”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “expect”, “in the process” and other similar expressions which constitute “forward- looking information” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements reflect the Corporation’s current expectation and assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, our expectations regarding the acceptance of our products by the market, our strategy to develop new products and enhance the capabilities of existing products, our strategy with respect to research and development, the impact of competitive products and pricing, new product development, and uncertainties related to the regulatory approval process. Such statements reflect the current views of the Corporation with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and other risks detailed from time-to-time in the Corporation’s ongoing filings with the securities regulatory authorities, which filings can be found at www.sedar.com, or at www.otcmarkets.com. Actual results, events, and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The Corporation undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward- looking statements either as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) nor the OTCQB accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

SOURCE PyroGenesis Canada Inc.

For further information please contact:
Rodayna Kafal, Vice President Investors Relations and Strategic Business Development
Phone: (514) 937-0002, E-mail: [email protected]RELATED LINK: http://www.pyrogenesis.com/

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.

Could #COVID19 be telehealth’s big moment? #Mhealth – SPONSOR: CardioComm Solutions $EKG.ca – $ATE.ca $TLT.ca $OGI.ca $ACST.ca $IPA.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 11:27 AM on Thursday, May 14th, 2020

SPONSOR: CardioComm Solutions (EKG: TSX-V) – The heartbeat of cardiovascular medicine and telemedicine. Patented systems enable medical professionals, patients, and other healthcare professionals, clinics, hospitals and call centres to access and manage patient information in a secure and reliable environment.

Could COVID-19 be telehealth’s big moment?

  • Over the five-year period that the analysis looks at, the U.S. telehealth market could see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38.2%
  • This year alone, the analysts expect the market to experience year-over-year growth of 64.3%

By Sean Whooley

Frost & Sullivan announced today that recent analysis finds that the demand for telehealth technology is expected to rise amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The analysis, titled “Telehealth — A Technology-Based Weapon in the War Against the Coronavirus, 2020,” revealed that, as COVID-19 continues to disrupt the practice of medicine and the delivery of healthcare, the U.S. telehealth market will experience seven-fold growth by 2025.

Over the five-year period that the analysis looks at, the U.S. telehealth market could see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38.2%. This year alone, the analysts expect the market to experience year-over-year growth of 64.3%.

“The critical need for social distancing among physicians and patients will drive unprecedented demand for telehealth, which involves the use of communication systems and networks to enable either a synchronous or asynchronous session between the patient and provider,” Frost & Sullivan healthcare principal analyst Victor Camlek said in a news release. “However, all stakeholders need to remember that many people use the terms ‘telehealth’ or ‘telemedicine’ without understanding the ecosystem that is involved. This study will clarify the many components that are needed in order to implement telehealth.”

Camlek said that virtual visits and remote patient monitoring will propel the telehealth market, then mHealth and personal emergency response systems will come into play as well.

The analysis hypothesizes that the opportunity for telehealth to become the standard of care is growing amid the pandemic and the main challenge for providers is the capabilities for scaling up during the increase in demand.

Frost & Sullivan expects growth to be sustained beyond the pandemic by vendors who deliver user-friendly sensors, practical applications of artificial intelligence, interactive virtual assistants and robotics, as well as use of big data analytics and adherence to cybersecurity, among other things.

Source: https://www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com/could-covid-19-be-telehealths-big-moment/

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/

CLIENT FEATURE: Tartisan #Nickel $TN.ca Kenbridge Property Hosts M&I Resource of 7.14 Million Tonnes of 0.62% Nickel + 0.33% Copper – $ROX.ca $FF.ca $EDG.ca $AGL.ca $ANZ.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 6:12 PM on Tuesday, May 12th, 2020
Tc logo in black

Investment Highlights

  • Kenbridge property has a measured and indicated resource of 7.14 million tonnes at 0.62% nickel, 0.33% copper
  • 17.5 (21.8 fully diluted) percent equity stake in Eloro Resources and 2 percent NSR in their La Victoria property

Kenbridge Ni Project (ON, Canada)

  • Advanced  stage  deposit  remains open  in  three  directions,  is  equipped with a 623m  deep  shaft  and  has  never  been  mined
  • Preliminary  Economic Assessment completed and updated returned robust project 
    economics and operating costs including  a  NPV  of  C$253M  and  cash costs of US$3.47/lb of nickel net of  copper credits
  • Plans for Kenbridge include updating PEA, advancing the project through to feasibility and exploring the open mineralization at depth

Recent News

  • Company has completed a Spectral Analysis Survey
  • Survey covered the patented and single-cell mining claims that make up the historic land position which contains the Kenbridge Deposit and the surrounding area, identifying several new exploration targets not only for nickel, copper, cobalt, but also for potential gold occurrences
  • Analysis Survey shows the distribution and intensity of up to 304 minerals, with the first pass showing up to 16 minerals
  • Each mineral can be classified into an exploration relevance for base metals, precious metals and industrial metals

Tartisan CEO Mark Appleby said, “the survey picked out the Kenbridge Deposit, and has shown the possible extension to the Kenbridge Deposit and three additional trends that relate directly to underlying geology and structure implicit in the Kenbridge Deposit. Of significant interest, the survey found two gold trends as well, which include the Violet and Nina historic gold occurrences. One of the occurrences is almost 54 hectares in size and covers almost all of three of our staked claims on the border of the Kenbridge property.”

Industry News

INDUSTRY BULLETIN: Cobalt price, nickel usage limit damage to EV Metal Index

INDUSTRY BULLETIN: Nickel prices jump after Vale trims output target

INDUSTRY BULLETIN: Nickel prices get a boost from pandemic-driven ore supply tightness

INDUSTRY BULLETIN: Have the next crop of battery metals producers been oversold?

FULL DISCLOSURE: Tartisan Nickel Corp. is an advertising client of AGORA Internet Relations Corp.

How is #COVID19 Impacting the #Mhealth Sector? – SPONSOR: CardioComm Solutions $EKG.ca – $ATE.ca $TLT.ca $OGI.ca $ACST.ca $IPA.ca

Posted by AGORACOM-JC at 9:00 PM on Monday, May 11th, 2020

SPONSOR: CardioComm Solutions (EKG: TSX-V) – The heartbeat of cardiovascular medicine and telemedicine. Patented systems enable medical professionals, patients, and other healthcare professionals, clinics, hospitals and call centres to access and manage patient information in a secure and reliable environment.

How is COVID-19 Impacting the mHealth Sector?

 

– COVID-19 is set to challenge the traditional working of the healthcare domain and push it towards an expedited adoption of digital health.

– The one thing that is certain amidst this time after the pandemic impact has ended, we all will be left with structural changes in ways healthcare works.

By Prateek Saxena

As you read, COVID-19 is shutting down one nation after another. Around the globe, the coronavirus pandemic is having an unprecedented effect on daily lives. The virus has contacted every single sector as part of its dire impact on the global economy.

But its impact on the healthcare sector has been seismic. 

COVID-19 is set to challenge the traditional working of the healthcare domain and push it towards an expedited adoption of digital health. 

The value of digital approaches which are designed to help health professionals and the public stay up to date about the disease, maintain communication, and allow better strategic planning are now being highlighted more than ever before. 

The one thing that is certain amidst this time after the pandemic impact has ended, we all will be left with structural changes in ways healthcare works. Although these changes were happening, they were piecemeal. COVID-19 is everything that is needed to expedite the process and bring upon the digital transformation. 

Here’s a detailed read on the coronavirus impact on healthcare industry. 

How is mHealth changing?

Medical Distancing: To counter COVID-19 outbreak, key authorities like the WHO and CDC have been lobbying for ways to lower physical contact between the healthcare providers and patients, also known as medical distancing. 

Telehealth service is becoming a force in the efforts to lower healthcare-specific COVID-19 transmission. It’s effectiveness has been acting as a promising one for areas including dermatology, cardiology, and diabetic care, etc. which allows high-quality remote care, all the while saving the time and physical space. 

Even though telehealth has established itself as a great measure to back up medical distancing, there are certain barriers that have to be addressed. There are issues around patient characteristics like educational background and age, etc, uncertainties around the legal liabilities, in addition to issues of confidentiality and privacy. 

Healthcare app development companies, however, have taken notes and are working on eradicating these issues. 

Crowdsourced disease monitoring: the high surge of coronavirus crisis are highlighting the need of timely tracking the infected and their contacts. Flexibility and timeliness are known to be the two common weaknesses in the surveillance systems.  

Digital health experts, through the mode of coronavirus tracing applications, make it possible to crowdsource disease monitoring. People from across the world put in their data – their travel routes, prospect of them having caught the virus, etc. for the healthcare agencies to track the hotspots and carriers. 

Health Information Exchange to boost interoperability: Because of the pandemic and the overcrowding of patients and health facilities, a strong health data exchange has become a key in the health infrastructure. It has also shown us that ‘health data’ shouldn’t just consist of patients’ medical data but also consist of a wide data type coming in from individual’s offline and online activity. 

We are going to see a lot more HIEs becoming open and un-localized. There will be many portals coming into existence for the patients and health systems to access the files. 

“With the coronavirus exploding in communities and overwhelming hospitals nationwide, we need to help doctors and nurses on the front lines get the information they need now to stop the spread of this virus and save lives,’’ Allen Byington, co-founder of HIE Networks said. “There has never been a greater need for easy, seamless communications in health care.”

Surging demand for health gadgets: The coronavirus impact on healthcare sector has been a seismic wave of wellbeing awareness and anxiety. The fear of infection has expedited the adoption of applications and wearable as a mode of making people feel protected. Wearables are giving people accurate feedback on their blood pressure, body temperature, and health signals which are restoring the sense of control in people in addition to helping them track their health. 

In addition to the rising demand and usage of wearable for preventive measures, the users are also adopting them for being fit and keeping up with their fitness goals that they have set for themselves. 

Companies using technology to track, test, and treat COVID-19

  1. Apple & Google announced their plan to launch APIs which would enable interoperability between Android and iOS products. The two companies are also committed to developing bluetooth-based contact training features in their underlying operating systems. They believe that it would provide deeper data integration with the governments’ public health initiatives and health apps. 
  2. Walgreens has expanded its telehealth program in a way that it includes COVID-19 risk assessment, information on the clinical trials, etc. The platform also includes a website and mobile health application to help patients navigate telehealth providers and health systems so that they can connect with nurses and doctors. 
  3. The Kingdom of Bahrain has developed a COVID-19 tracking system which depends on the GPS tracking electronic bracelets and coronavirus contact tracing application. The system then alerts the government monitoring station when the infected individual leaves isolation. 
  4. Acute care and SCP Health declared their partnership for providing scalable emergency service and hospital medicine through telemedicine 
  5. Jefferson Health system laid a partnership with LifeLink for launching former’s chatbot across LifeLink’s 14 Philadelphia locations. The chabot would make use of AI for aiding pre-screen of coronavirus outbreak. The patients can also make use of the bot for figuring out the right approach of their treatment. 

In conclusion: The post-coronavirus digital health

The after-COVID world is going to be remembered as when medical interactions such as a provision to primary care or management of several non-communicable diseases transferred to digital mode, by default, as opposed to exceptions. While we had very little impact on how coronavirus impacts the global digital health industry, the post-COVID19 world will see us accepting digital health as the new normal. 

The new age will also likely enable other technologies like 5G, AI, IoT, etc. to help us all converge in a completely new variety of approaches. In this global pandemic, we are witnessing this happening in real-time and in a never-imaginable pace. 

In England, primary care has now started finally embracing telehealth and has been delivering a digital first approach as a mode to manage streaming care to the appropriate places. 

However, there’s plenty left to be done. There is a need for incorporation of a robust governance in deployment of these approaches. There should also be a robust clinic decision support within our deployments as a rule in place of exceptions. 

The next important alteration which can be seen accelerating is an adoption of precision health: both in personalised and predictive health setup. We will see the utilization of digital technology in empowering the people to self-manage themselves in case of non-communicable disease. 

Additionally, we have to understand that this new world of medical infrastructure will be very different from the health and care world we are used to. It would require us to remain open and adaptive. There is one thing guaranteed – the digital health world is going to change for the good.

Source: https://appinventiv.com/blog/coronavirus-impact-on-mhealth/