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Hello reader,
Some of my closest friends in Hanoi are teachers. I have a lot of admiration for the job they do, as I know I can’t do it.
I had a short-lived (mercifully for all involved) stint as a teacher that proved that beyond any doubt. Luckily for me, my career as an educator came and went before the Covid-19 pandemic, as that was a particularly rough time for my teacher friends here in Vietnam.
To say schools here didn’t adapt well to online learning would be an understatement. While many poured cash into various tech solutions, the stories I heard from my friends showed that those in charge of the schools were eagerly awaiting the return of offline studying.
With lockdown restrictions lifted, those schools have less need for the tech solutions that were once vital.
That partially explains why the last few years have been less fruitful than the days of the pandemic for edtech startups like Geniebook. Today’s featured piece dives into why the company has had to lay off more than 100 staff since the start of last year.
Today we look at:
- The ax falls at Geniebook
- WeRide delays its IPO in the US
- Other newsy highlights such as TikTok making a comeback in Nepal and a Singaporean sign language chatbot firm getting funding.
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Harsh lessons for Geniebook
Image credit: Timmy Loen
Geniebook last enjoyed a net profitable year in 2020, and it seems times have been tough for the edtech firm since then.
The Singapore-based company has laid off 117 employees since the start of 2023, including 24 this year.
- School’s out: Geniebook co-founder and CEO Zhizhong Neo told Tech in Asia that the “reality of the funding winter” and the changing demands of the education market had led to the job cuts. All of the layoffs this year affected employees in the firm’s Singapore office, while those let go last year were based in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
- Pandemic problems: As the Covid-19 pandemic pushed learning online in 2021, Geniebook said its revenue surged 2,000% compared to 2019. However, students returned to offline learning in late 2021 in Singapore and 2022 in Vietnam, its two main markets.
- Math class: In 2022, Geniebook’s operating losses increased by almost 7x year on year to US$10.4 million despite posting a revenue increase of about 25% over the same period. The firm has raised a total of US$17.7 million in funding to date, with its last round in October 2021.
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