Vietnamese livestreaming-focused edtech firm bags $1.5m funding

As TPG Capital’s first undergraduate hire in Southeast Asia, Pham Duc was in the front seat when it came to technological growth in the region. At the US-based private equity fund, he analyzed investment opportunities in various sectors but finally settled on education.

“I saw the demand for private education to grow rapidly in the region and how the penetration of technology in education has reached an inflection point in countries like India and China in the past four years,” he told Tech in Asia.

Marathon co-founders Tran Viet Tung (left) and Pham Duc / Photo credit: Marathon

As the Covid-19 pandemic became a catalyst for the adoption of online education, Duc saw an opportunity in the field and decided to switch over to the founder’s role to build a startup called Marathon. He then asked his brother-in-law, Tran Viet Tung, to join him as co-founder. The latter had been the Vietnam country head for Klook, an online travel startup, and had previous experience in establishing startups.

See also: The players shaping Vietnam’s emerging edtech sector

The fledgeling startup has just announced a US$1.5 million pre-seed investment round, which was led by Forge Ventures, a venture capital that was launched recently in partnership with Alto Partners. Venturra Discovery, iSeed Southeast Asia, and a handful of angel investors also participated in the round.

Focus on live teaching

Marathon offers live online tutoring sessions on its platform that connect teachers with students virtually. According to Duc, this format can offer a better learning experience and higher user engagement than other methods. A tutor and some teaching assistants can handle a two-hour session with around 300 participants.

“Tutors see it as an opportunity because the platform enables them to reach more students, especially those who live outside Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City,” Duc explained.

The platform is still currently in the development phase. The company will conduct pilot phases before the end of this year and plans to launch the product on a broader scale by early next year. It will begin by offering math and science courses for grades six to 12 and gradually add lessons on more subjects with time.

Duc says that he will use the fresh funding to acquire high-quality tutors, hire an engineering team, and build infrastructure.

“Hiring will be a challenge for us due to limited tech talent in Vietnam. For a start, we will use third-party SDK (software development kit) for the streaming solution, but eventually, we want to build an in-house product by ourselves,” Duc said.