Kalpha raises six-figure funding to allow P2P exchange of knowledge, skills, experiences on its platform

Kalpha, a Singaporean edutech startup, announced today it has closed a six-figure seed extension round, led by existing seed-stage investor Nest Tech, with participation from several undisclosed angel investors.

(From left): Kalpha co-founder Jaden Teo, Nest Tech VN founder and managing partner Soe Moe Kyaw Oo,  and Kalpha Vietnam chief marketing officer and co-founder Tri Nguyen

With the new funding, the startup plans to extend its product offerings by introducing new features to its existing platform.

The fresh funds will be used to extend Kalpha’s offerings

Founded in 2018, Kalpha is a P2P platform where individuals can connect and meet up virtually or physically to learn and share their skills and knowledge on a one-on-one basis.

Users on the platform can either sign up as a sharer or a learner and use the service accordingly. Sharers will have to curate a listing of their skills and knowledge and learners will then schedule the meet-up date and proceed to learn whatever skill they want to learn.

“Kalpha advocates learning beyond school. The vision of Kalpha is to promote lifelong learning where users are empowered to meet others to learn and share their experiences. Through those meetups, Kalpha hopes that users can then make better and more informed decisions before embarking onto certain life paths,” explained Co-founder Jack Soh.

“The opportunity to learn from an experienced individual in a personalised setting on real-life topics are limited, and Kalpha fulfils that gap in the market,” he added.

In terms of growth, the company has shown a positive trajectory having more than 70,000 downloads, over 2,000 listings and 2,500 completed sessions since its launch in January 2019. It also managed to successfully roll out its services outside of Singapore in Vietnam during July 2020.

“Southeast Asia will be Kalpha’s key target market as people in developing countries are always hungry to learn. Having said that, we’re experiencing a very healthy growth in user traction in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, since our rollout in July 2020,” noted C0-founder Tri Nguyen.

The firm plans to roll out its new gamification features as well as a question and answers (Q&A) forum to strengthen its existing P2P model.

Kalpha was incubated in The SandBox by Ngee Ann Polytechnic and was also awarded the SG Founder’s Grant by Enterprise Singapore.

Source from: e27.co

Kalpha participates in the campus startup incubator AGILE

Singapore’s Ngee Ann Polytechnic (NP) and the United Overseas Bank (UOB) announced their plans to jointly launch a campus startup incubator and learning lab to drive student entrepreneurship and encourage ecosystem partnerships.

Hangout@UOB has areas where students can sit and share ideas (ST Photo: Jason Quah)

AGILE, which stands for Accelerating Growth in Innovation, Learning, and Entrepreneurship, aims to nurture the next generation of entrepreneurs. It will give startups access to mentorship through The FinLab, an innovation accelerator by UOB, and opportunities to glean industry insights through The FinLab’s programs.

In addition, NP and UOB said they aim to use AGILE as a venue for programs such as financial literacy workshops, talks with experts in innovation, entrepreneurship and career guidance, as well as hackathons and competitions.

Called Agile, the 10,000 sq ft space on the NP campus in Clementi will have three main functions (ST Photo: Jason Quah)

Ten startups from sectors such as events management, financial advisory, and medical devices, have already come on board, according to a statement. They consist of the following:

1. Kalpha is a peer-to-peer mobile platform in the education technology space where individuals can connect and meet to learn skills, experiences, and knowledge on a one-to-one basis.
2. Generation Connect develops novel rehabilitative products based on research to provide engagement and social interaction with a focus on inter-generational bonding.
3. Conceptsmiths is a multi-discipline design and branding agency dedicated to helping food and beverage businesses identify, distinguish, and communicate their brand through creative solutions and visuals.
4. AllForU is a platform that aggregates undergraduates through a centralized portal to guide students, connecting them to opportunities with companies and vendors.
5. Position Five is a creative agency that specializes in events and digital marketing. It has a team for any event requirement, which ranges from logistics, conceptualization, to digital marketing.
6. Proa Technology designs and builds intelligent applications for companies to make sense of their data.
7. Radx is a software development and technology services company supporting clients in their digital transformation, focusing on AR and VR solutions for interactive experiences.
8. FatFreq creates high-quality in-ear monitors and innovative systems for musicians and sound engineers.
9. SmoothWork is a “roboCFO” that automates financial advisory, conducts financial health checks, and obtains cheaper financing.
10. JoyfulPerson is the mobile micro-learning solution for frontline workers, enabling rapid upskilling, and organizational excellence.

As part of the program, NP and UOB also announced the launch of Hangout@UOB, a community space aimed to facilitate collaboration and encourage student engagement. The space will be managed by student interns under the supervision and mentorship of UOB employees.

“In co-managing Hangout@UOB, students will also learn how to anticipate customer needs, with the guidance from our UOB colleagues. These will be their real-life experiences that go beyond any textbook knowledge,” said Jacquelyn Tan, UOB’s head of group personal financial services.

Source from: techinasia.com

VietNam is a top pick for businesses going overseas

VIETNAM is drawing record numbers of Singapore businesses as companies continue to look for expansion opportunities despite Covid-19.

Enterprise Singapore (ESG) said it has supported more than double the number of internationalization projects for enterprises looking to expand into Vietnam since 2018. From January to October 2020 alone, ESG supported 56.9 per cent more projects year on year across sectors such as ICT and media, professional services, and education.

Kalpha co-founders (from left) Jaden Teo and Jack Soh

Since the launch of the Singapore Business Federation’s GlobalConnect@SBF last November, the centre, supported by ESG, received the highest volume of enquiries for regional overseas business ventures in Vietnam, says ESG assistant CEO Tan Soon Kim.

Traditionally, Singapore companies that are keen to invest in or expand in Vietnam come from sectors that include infrastructure and urban solutions note Mr Tan. In recent years, however, there has been growing interest in the areas of manufacturing, F&B and retail.

Functional juice company Doki Doki for instance, set up a factory in Vietnam in 2017, from where its R&D and production teams work with European companies to innovate and launch new products.

It decided to expand its sales channels to Vietnam this year and pushed forward the launch of their new product Lean Up calorie-burning juice. Within two weeks of the launch, the product was sold out in Vietnam and Singapore.

“Our domestic sales are almost reaching pre-Covid levels and we also see a higher volume of enquiries from F&B and manufacturing customers because their suppliers have either folded or they are not able to provide the same level of good quality and customer service,” says Doki Doki co-founder and CEO Alex Goh.

Another company that is actively scaling up its retail presence in Vietnam is Norbreeze Group, which distributes and markets jewellery and timepiece brands including Pandora, Olivia Burton, Bering, Coach, Boss, and Tommy Hilfiger.

The company is opening three new owned-and-operated stores in Vietnam in November and five partner stores in December/January. By end-2020, Norbreeze will manage a retail network of 19 stores in Vietnam, comprising 11 owned-and-operated stores, and eight stores operated by partners. And by end-2021, it expects to go to 35 stores.

For Norbreeze CEO Anders Peter Sauerberg, it boils down to cost and returns on investment. According to Mr Sauerberg, cost of operations in Vietnam can be 50-60 per cent lower compared to Singapore. It simply is more profitable to operate physical stores there. This is in tandem with Norbreeze’s new website cocomi.vn.

“We are quite aggressive in opening stores because we have found a model that works. This enables us to open fast not only in first-tier cities but also in second-tier locations,” he says.

Not that it is giving up on retail in Singapore. In fact, it is implementing new technology at its physical stores. Termed conversational commerce, this gives consumers at home direct visible access to a sales associate who is working in the store.

“In the pure online space, we have an expected conversion of 1-2 per cent. In physical stores, depending on the category of the store and what is being sold, between 10 and 30 per cent. Conversational commerce is expected to sit in the middle at 14 per cent,” says Mr Sauerberg.

But perhaps most intriguing is a decision by local startup Kalpha to launch its app in Vietnam this year.

Kalpha’s whole business model is premised on connecting people – “learners” and “sharers” to learn and share skills, knowledge and experiences. The catch? It strongly believes in the value of synchronous learning – physical in-person meetups.

“We went to Vietnam in November last year looking to launch our product in February, but Covid-19 pushed everything back and we officially launched in July 2020,” says Kalpha co-founder Jack Soh.

During the early days when news of Covid-19 was first emerging from China, “nobody thought too much about it”, remembers Mr Soh.

“But in Vietnam, everybody was already very cautious. Even back in November, every lift had hand sanitizer and people were already wearing masks. So when it really got out, Singapore was hit harder compared to Vietnam.”

Launching a business that is based around meetups inevitably had its road bumps. People were understandably cautious and the feedback given was that people were open to meeting, but preferred to meet via video conference.

“So we started building our own online meeting function. But once we finished building that, things went back to normal and people were meeting up in-person again,” he says with a rueful laugh.

Kalpha has scaled quickly. From its soft launch when it was seeing between 1,000 and 2,000 downloads per month, it is now looking at 6,000-8,000 user downloads per month.

“In terms of sessions month-to-month, we’re also growing quite quickly. In October we did 580 sessions and in terms of interactions we’re looking at over 10,000 per month.”

Kalpha has even set up its own cafe in district 7, just outside Ho Chi Minh City’s city centre, to provide a space for meetups to happen.

“Singaporeans are still in that mode of being not too inclined to meet up. In Singapore, typically we used to hit about 10 completed sessions per day, but now we’re looking at one to two sessions. In Vietnam, we’re at like 15 to 20 completed sessions a day,” says Mr Soh.

One business for which the model has shifted quite permanently is NovaLand Group’s Nova F&B, the franchisee for Jumbo Seafood in Vietnam.

A Jumbo Singapore spokesperson noted that prior to the pandemic, most customers, whether in Singapore or at overseas outlets, preferred to dine in at the restaurants in big groups. Delivery was never a big part of the overall revenue for the brand.

Delivery has since become the new norm and the team in Vietnam had to quickly go about onboarding the company’s brands on delivery platforms and implementing promotions to encourage consumer spending.

The team also had to review Jumbo’s food offering to ensure the dining experience was not affected by the delivery journey. The packaging was a challenge as spillage is a common problem during delivery.

Overall, Vietnam was able to so quickly get a handle on Covid-19 means the businesses The Business Times talked to remain upbeat about their plans.

Nova F&B said Jumbo Seafood is now one of the leading restaurants in Ho Chi Minh City and the company is “actively seeking” new locations to expand their presence.

Kalpha’s Mr Soh is looking forward to building out the firm’s B2C vertical in 2021. The plan is to offer professional courses, workshops and seminars. There are also plans to gamify the app and allow users to convert points gained to coffee or class credits. Kalpha is also looking to expand to other regions, including Danang and Hanoi.

“Right now, our short term objective is still user acquisition. Our main revenue stream will come when we introduce course and seminar providers. Everybody there wants to learn so professional courses and seminars make sense,” Mr Soh says.

“Team-wise, we’re looking to expand to other regions like Danang and to Hanoi to ramp up our traction. We are on track to hit 100,000 users by the end of the year and hopefully, by the end of next year, we hit 300,000 users. By end-2021, if we can expand to a third country, that will be fantastic.”

Source from: businesstimes.com.sg

Kalpha – One of the winners for the Origin Innovation Awards 2020

ORIGIN Innovation Awards is APAC’s esteemed accolade for tech innovation which aims to provide recognition to companies that have exemplified the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship in the running of their businesses. The inaugural ORIGIN Innovation Awards started in 2020 as an initiative by TechNode Global with a goal to build a dynamic community in propelling them to soar to greater heights.

TechNode Global, a Pan-Asia tech platform, has announced the winners for the first edition of ORIGIN Innovation Awards. The winners were announced during the ORIGIN Conference, an on-demand conference track about the latest developments in the Asia tech and startup scene within TECHFEST Live x ROAD-TO-WCIT Malaysia 2020.

2020 winners include early-stage startups, venture capital firms, corporates, community builders, and influential individuals. Close to 400 contenders from 18 countries across the Asia Pacific region participated. Southeast Asia continued to be the most-represented region, with 67% of the applications, while East Asia emerged in the second spot with 23%, ahead of South Asia with 10%.

“Congratulations to the winners for making an impact on the Asian technology and innovation space. All of this year’s nominations were impressive and have demonstrated passion and dedication in providing innovative technology solutions,” said Nadia Fonny, vice president at Gobi Partners, and advisor of the ORIGIN Innovation Awards 2020 panel.

The all-star advisory team is made up of representatives from AppWorks, Cyberport, Gobi Partners, Golden Gate Ventures, InnoVen Capital, MDI Ventures, Rakuten Capital, Sistema Asia, True Digital Park, and ZWC Partners.

TechNode Global presented the ORIGIN Innovation Awards to outstanding startups, corporates, ecosystem enablers, and movers and shakers in Asia who are poised for growth.  Nominations were evaluated based on criteria such as value proposition, strength of technology product, company growth potential, and the leadership capability. 

Dr. Gang Lu, founder and CEO of TechNode Global, said, “We’re thrilled to offer recognition to the winners as they continue their journey on a technology revolution. TechNode Global remains committed to continue building a community of tech innovation in Asia. We look forward to meeting more outstanding solutions, engaging new partners, and connecting tech businesses across the region.”

Kalpha is one of the winners for Startup Awards – EduTech (in alphabetical order) 

1. ACKTEC Technologies – EdTech company focused on innovation in 360 VR, virtual reality, and augmented reality for immersive learning
2. Careershe – career guidance startup focused on helping students between 15-25 years old in China
3. Flying Cape – online booking and advisory platform for tuition and enrichment classes in Singapore
4. Kalpha – peer to peer mobile platform where individuals can connect and meetup to learn and share any skills, knowledge and experiences on a 1-to-1 basis
5. Ottodot – Singapore-based science learning platform for primary 3-6 students

Source: technode.com