Amid the uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic, Malaysian edutech company AOne has secured RM2 million in seed funding from Wavemaker Partners, a Southeast Asia’s early-stage venture capital firm.
Earlier in April 2020, AOne had also received funding from ScaleUp Ventures Malaysia, as one of the top 10 companies for regional growth in ScaleUp Accelerator programme, as well as an RM300,000 grant from Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd, a government agency that helps promising tech startups in Malaysia grow and commercialise their businesses.
AOne’s key product AOneSchools helps enrichment centres like tuition schools, kindergartens, enrichment academies, etc. manage their administrative workflow. Besides the B2B service, AOne is also providing a B2C online marketplace for local classes, a platform that connects students with education providers near them powered by AOne’s vision, “Anyone can teach, everyone can learn”.
Currently, AOne serves 800+ enrichment centres, managing over 50,000 lessons and more than 100,000 learners and educators across multiple cities, with the majority of them located in Malaysia and Singapore. In the next 12 to 15 months the company plans to use the funds to drive market expansion across Southeast Asia, as well as enhance its current product offerings in the education sector.
Despite the precarious economic conditions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, AOne was still able to gain the confidence of investors. The company still displayed sustainable growth, boosted by the Malaysian government’s initiative in promoting operational digitalisation for the country’s small and medium enterprises.
Among the organisations that have subscribed to AOne’s services are Kickstart Gymnastics in Kuala Lumpur and Gifted-Child Group, a pre-kinder and kindy centre in Kuching, Sarawak.
“Darren, who has the experience in running three mathematics centres, has built AOne with a firm understanding of what education centres, parents and their children need,” said Gavin Lee, General Partner of Wavemaker Partners.
“This is powerfully reflected in the fact that AOne is a dual-sided solution that not only reduces manual work in education centres, but also allows parents themselves to manage their children’s schedules and payments.
They’ve grown despite the pandemic and have happy clients in Singapore such as The Collective Knowledge, Frankel Tutors, My Chinese Steps, etc. We are excited to be part of AOne’s unique journey in B2B SaaS edutech and make education more manageable and discoverable for all,” he added.
Current investor, ScaleUp Malaysia’s Senior Partner, V. Sivapalan also shared Lee’s sentiment.
“We are very proud of Darren and the team at AOne. They have shown tenacity and resourcefulness during this challenging period and have emerged stronger by driving more value to their customers and users. With this fresh round of funding, we are confident that the team will be able to make significant strides in the education sector in Malaysia and beyond.”
