Learn Education is a company that proposes to implement blended learning technology tools to help teacher provide quality education to students in science and math subjects in order to improve the Thailand’s poor academics.
NOTE: This pitch was given for a competition where prizes were already predetermined amounts so there is no ask in this pitch or projection for ROI.
As the dean of admissions in a university in India, I would invest in this venture. Although it was not made clear if Learn Education could be expanded to other geographical locations/the curriculum can be adapted at this time, I can still visualize the potential of blended learning to address the growing skills gap amongst India's youth and working-age categories. Not only can this software increase India's large and growing populations access to learning, but the 1 on 1 training function can help increase overall exam results and improve student's employability in the present job market climate. There are similar edutech startups around India creating blended learning software and programs, but the results of Learn Education's pilot has demonstrated a competitive advantage. Although there was a language barrier, it was still easy to see how the founder exuded confidence in his venture, as it was personal for him. I'm interested to learn more about Learn Education and its potential as we continue to shift toward more digital forms and education.
Problems in Thailand’s education system High student dropout rate; 124,611 students dropout each year (in high school, the dropout rates increase over 200%) Low academic performance of students: the results of O-NET (national examination) in math and sciences fall significantly below national standards Lack of quality and quantity in teachers (particularly in the subjects of Mathematics and Sciences, the number of which is 66,094 less than what Thailand needs) Solutions Improving Human ware by engaging and developing teachers’ skills through teaching training and implementation process Advancing software by leveraging technology blended learning tools Connecting software and human ware through digital and active in-class learning modules Learn Thailand’s Investment Showcase Learn Thailand（founded in 2011） Investor: DBS Bank Ltd Role of Investor: Lead Funder Amount of Financing: $74,052 Type of Financing: Grant Legal Registration Type: Social Enterprise / Business Country: Thailand Social Sector: Children and youths Stage of Development: Pilot / Start-Up (Source: https://avpn.asia/investmentshowcase/learn-education/) Impact https://www.dbs.com.sg/iwov-resources/forms/nus/learn-education.pdf Comments and questions Personally, I found the underlying problems of teacher shortage a structural one, which requires the government to give higher priority to education in their budget. We can see that the number of teachers has not been shown to increase after Learn Thailand was introduced and Thailand may continue to face a shortage in quantity even though the increase in quality may only have an indirect effect in the long run as improvement in quality increases teachers' retention rate and encourages more people to become a teacher. A notable change in the teachers' market may require a significant teacher pay rise, improvement in working conditions and educational/training programs. These changes can be time-consuming and costly. In terms of target audience, there are 5,000,000 students in Thailand while this venture has an anticipated impact of 200,000 by 2020, which is only approximately 5% of the total population of students. Despite its limitations, I would still consider investing in this social venture. A social venture has the advantage of raising public awareness for the government to reform the education system and addressing broad social problems with potentially sustainable solutions. In this case, Learn Thailand brings us a powerful message for change. The presenter has clearly identified some of the core problems in Thailand’s education system and he made a case for supporting Learn Thailand by addressing the pain point, solution, differentiation. With the statistics presented, he delivered a strong message that these problems need to be dealt with urgently. Since it was founded in 2011, Learn Thailand has proven to bring positive social impact to students of Thailand by decreasing students' dropout rate and improving their academic performance. As a social entrepreneur or philanthropist, I am convinced that Learn Thailand is for a good cause and has the potential to create more social impact to Thailand in the future. I think that it’s also quite effective to let a teacher share her experience by the end of the presentation. However, as an EVA, I would need some more information to consider investing in Learn Thailand. For social ventures like Learn Thailand to grow and self-sustain, they must first find ways to work with the private sector and business to make it profitable in order to expand its social impact further. Suggestions The presenter may want to provide more information in his pitch. By addressing some of the following concerns, he could make Learn Thailand is stronger case for EVA. －Financial sustainability: The grant was $74,052, investors would be interested to know the break-down of the investment, such as: how much of the grant was spent on designing and building the software? Is it self-sustainable? How much is needed for maintenance? Will there be any return? －Accessibility and marketing: How accessible is the software? Are teachers financed/supported? How much was spent on marketing to reach more people in Thailand? －Impact: How does Learn Thailand help students coming from low income families? －Scaling: If the only source of financing were a one time grant, could they make markets work in the long run? －Competition: Who/what are the (potential) competitors? Any potential to help bring Learn Thailand to new geographic areas (scale out) and new levels of systems of institutions (scale up)? References: Learn Thailand. The Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN). Retrieved from https://avpn.asia/investmentshowcase/learn-education/.
Yes, I would invest in this venture. I believe this company has the potential to not only bring a large social benefit to the children of Thailand but also significant financial opportunities over a longer timeline. The pain point in Tanin's presentation is startling - 4 million students in underprivileged students and 300,000 already dropped out. From a human capital standpoint, this is a devastating blow to our world economy. Although IQ is an imperfect instrument for measuring intelligence (let alone economic impact), it is said that approximately 2% of the population of any country would test out at a 'genius' level. In its current state of affairs, Thailand is allowing somewhere in the order of 6000 geniuses walk away from education, and 80000 geniuses have minimal or inadequate access to education. From a human rights perspective, this is clearly unacceptable and this alone would be enough to support initiatives like Learn Education. However, I see an opportunity for financial gain as well. As the saying goes, 'a rising tide lifts all boats'. Nowhere is this more true than in the global economy. As an EVA with investments in multiple educational ventures, I see Thailand as an untapped market for many of the businesses I hold a vested interest in. In the same way as corporations like Coke and Levis flood into formerly oppressive states when they experience a change in governance, so can a country's economic horizons broaden with the improved education of her citizens. This says nothing of the economic growth and innovation potential created by Thailand's citizens as more of them become engaged in tech entrepreneurship and venture analysis. Holding strong to my firm's 'people, planet, profit' motto, I feel like Learn Education shows excellent short term potential to positively impact the people and planet, while also offering future profit opportunities for investors that position themselves well now.
I enjoyed this pitch - the pain point, solution and championship were well presented. However, as an EVA, I would not invest in this unless I was looking at it as a philanthropist - the pitch clearly seems to be for a non-profit which uses it's income to fund the application of its product in underprivileged areas. It's a worthwhile cause, but is unlikely to generate much of a financial return on investment for its backers.
If the presentation had been for a profit-making venture, I would be interested in knowing more about the company's differentiation and the potential market competition from similar educational providers. In the presentation we're left to assume there aren't any, but LMS software can be easily downloaded and maintained at a relatively low cost - besides big names like Moodle, Blackboard Course Sites and Sakai, there are numerous open-source LMS implementations, including even a WordPress plugin. These can be easily used to offer a user-friendly "software side" and all that would be required is the "human-ware". My guess would be that some of the more established competitors might be facing a language barrier (I'm not sure how much of the Khan Academy content is available in Thai, but they are looking for translators), but Thailand boasts numerous international schools where the language of instruction would likely be English.
With a population exceeding 67 million, an awareness of the importance of STEM education, the challenges facing its educational system outlined in the pitch presentation, and nearly 35,000 K-12 schools, Thailand could be a good place for a venture that offers support for blended learning. The key to success could be adoption by one or more of the main education providers: Bangkok Patana School, Harrow International School, NIST International School, and Ruamrudee International School. A presentation that discusses some of this might make a more compelling pitch, especially for an investor who is not familiar with the country and its educational system.
As an EVA, I would be interested in seeing more but could not say at this stage whether I would invest in this product or not, although I would consider it. I appreciated the background information that the co-founder included about the desperate state of the Thai education system and his solution to overworked teachers and students falling through the cracks. The presenter proposes a software program that addresses the issues at hand for the science and math curriculum. I do not agree with the blended learning technology allowing teachers to reach more students and decreasing administrative challenges. In my experience in Canada and the United States, blended learning has been provided as an excuse for consistent under funding of the education system. In this circumstance, the problems are more about the education of students and decreasing a giant workload for teachers -- not saving costs on per student funding or administrative work--at least, that was not clearly defined in this pitch early on. The marketing plan was not discussed in detail but it is my assumption they would be targeting all schools, elementary and secondary, for science and math, across Thailand. Though the presenter seemed credible, there was no mention of competition in the market and this is a cause for concern and would need to be explored further. I am curious to see how the software works, the reach of the product, the IT costs, problems, and solutions across various regions of Thailand, as well as the functionality of the program for implementing 21st century learning models to all students. Overall, I need more information but am hesitant to seek it.
After listening to the Learn Education pitch I would consider investing in this venture. I found parts of the pitch to be quite compelling but other pieces of information were missing. The co-founder did a great job explaining the gap/problem with the Thai education system – not enough quantity or quality of teachers, test scores are far below average, and drop-out rates are high. I also found the solution to be well thought out and logically. Incorporating blended learning would allow teachers to reach more people and have less administrative challenges. The pitch also talked about the pilot test and relied on data to illustrate the success of his venture (30% test score increase in 3 years). However, the pitch made no mention of what the competition is doing, who the developers are, or how investors will make their money back. Further, I am not sure what makes the co-founder qualified to be developing this solution – he made clear his understanding and empathy for accessible education but did not build his credibility as a co-founder. In addition, he did not highlight how he would address challenges with Learn Education – it order for blended learning solutions to be successful the target audience (aka students) must have access to computers. I’m not clear on how low income families will gain this access. I also did not find him to be especially passionate in his delivery. This may have been due to a language barrier but I did not find myself going wow at the end of the pitch. The reason I would be inclined to invest is because of my own knowledge of the success/opportunity for blended learning solutions. All in all I was left wanting a bit more.
As an EVA, I would invest in this venture. The CEO of Learn Education succinctly lays out the pain point of the importance of education is to transforming lifestyles by using himself as an example. He also compelling indicates Thailand's poor academics and uses global statistics as well as drop out rates to drive home the point. He clearly outlines the 3-pronged approached to his blended learning system and indicates that their company's expertise is what brings together the "software and humanware". I would like to find out more about his product, and I'm not sure if he had a timeline for this presentation, but if he had the full 8 minutes of a venture pitch, I think we would have heard more details. His use of statistics, number-driven results, and positive user stories are all strong support for his case. I found his presentation engaging, professional, and sincere. DBS and NUS Enterprise who runs this DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge, an Asia-wide competition for social enterprises open to any member of the public, also seem to agree as they awarded Learn Education with the grand prize of SGD100,000. (http://socialventurechallenge.asia/past-winners/)
