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In focus
For this edition, we cover:
- Geniebook’s hard lessons from going hybrid
- A year after its rebrand, Summit cuts deep
- Asia’s tech layoffs, by the numbers
Hello reader,
In Hanoi, many of my teacher friends floundered during the pandemic. Online learning didn’t just involve technical hurdles, it broke the classroom dynamic. Many parents hated it. Students tuned out.
But for edtech startups like Geniebook, it was a breakout moment. As schools scrambled, the Singapore-based company surged, racking up a net profit of US$1.3 million in 2020.
However, as we all know, the pandemic has since subsided, and children have returned to schools. Along the way, the edtech gold rush has lost its shine. Geniebook, for instance, laid off more than 100 employees between 2023 to 2024.
Ironically, while teachers struggled to go online during the pandemic, startups like Geniebook are now scrambling to go offline, as parents gravitate back to in-person learning.
In today’s first Big Story, Geniebook’s co-founders unpack the hard lessons they learned from taking a hybrid learning approach. Blending online and offline sounds simple, until you’re picking real estate, making trade-offs, and rethinking everything you thought you knew about edtech.
Meanwhile, we also broke the news on layoffs at Summit, the fintech firm formerly known as Spenmo. Rebranding is easy, but changing fortunes is much harder.
Peter Cowan, engagement editor
Top Stories
1️⃣ We took our online-first startup hybrid. It got complicated
Geniebook CEO Neo Zhizhong at Tech in Asia’s Saigon Summit last May 2024 Image credit: Tech in Asia
Geniebook co-founders Neo Zhizhong and Alicia Cheong found out the hard way that taking an online-first business into the real world isn’t as simple as adding physical locations. It demands a full business model rethink.
Their experience offers a rough playbook for digital-first founders eyeing similar pivots.
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