This founder took his distaste for Chinese lessons and built a successful edtech firm

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Hello reader,

Something that I’ve wanted to do has been to improve my command of the Chinese language. I learned it in school, but I absolutely hated Chinese classes.

As a kid, I never really saw the point: my family is predominantly English-speaking and everything in Singapore is done in English. What did I need another language for?

As an adult, I’m now more aware of how valuable it is to be bilingual or even multilingual. I want to get better at Chinese, but I’m not sure how to go about it or what resources I should use.

I’ve been told to give Duolingo a go, so that might be a good starting point.

Maybe things would have been different if gamified Chinese learning platforms like Vocab King had been around when I was growing up. In today’s premium story, we hear from a founder that moved past his childhood distaste for learning Chinese to build a successful edtech venture and learning center.

Today we look at:

• This edtech firm that’s making learning Chinese fun
• A startup that’s simplifying visa applications
• Other newsy highlights such as India’s ecommerce app rankings and the acquisition of an Indonesian agritech startup

Premium summary

Learn and play

Image credit: Timmy Loen

KidStartNow started out 10 years ago as a physical learning center that aimed to show Singaporean children that learning Chinese can be easy and fun. It now also operates Vocab King, an app that uses a pet-based battle system and animated stories to get children to do their Chinese lessons.

Let’s learn more about the startup.

• Something different: Vocab King differentiates itself in three ways: it offers greater engagement through the use of gamification, employs a tailored AI model to help students improve, and makes use of scaffolding tools instead of just providing answers.
• Positive numbers: At present, both the KidStartNow physical center and Vocab King digital business are generating over US$500,000 in revenue combined.
• Expand and grow: Vocab King has now been spun out of KidStartNow, and it’s looking to raise an angel round to bring the platform to overseas markets like North America.

Crossing borders

Did you miss us the first time? Great news: We’re coming back to Manila for the exclusive founders-only networking event!

Quick bytes