日本在线英语辅导公司Langrich被收购，在线教育已成日本热潮
美国远程教育公司EnglishCentral上周早些时候宣布了对日本公司Langrich的收购。
Langrich总部位于日本东京，提供在线英语辅导一类的服务。签署换股协议后，该公司将并入EnglishCentral，其投资者 KLab Ventures以及Hitomedia 都将成为EnglishCentral的小股东。据KLab公司发言人表示，此次并购标志着第一次日本创业公司被美国同类大公司收购。
Langrich成立于2010年，通过Skype语音软件提供英语教学，授课老师均为菲律宾籍。和其主要竞争对手Rarejob以及DMM一样，Langrich提供一对一教学，并专注于会话技巧。今后，其用户还可以通过电脑或者手机观看录制好的视频课程，并配上EnglishCentral的智能化语音识别技术来学习词汇和发音。
EnglishCentral首席执行官Alan Schwartz在采访中表示：“在日本，我们还将继续使用Langrich作为我们的品牌。”
“EnglishCentral不会更改旗下公司或平台的名称，包括很多在韩国、中国以及巴西的领先的在线学习公司。”
EnglishCentral总部位于马萨诸塞州阿灵顿，每月拥有超过10万付费用户。其服务范围包含全球各地超过100个国家的400多所大学。在扎堆的远程教育领域里，EnglishCentral这家创业公司最大的亮点或许就是有退款保证了。如果学生在三个月内不能得到提升，EnglishCentral会退还全部学费。
Schwartz表示，EnglishCentral将会接手Langrich现有的包括教师在内的260名员工，同时还表示：“我们也会每个月增加几十名教师，并且我们不会再限制教师国籍，菲律宾籍之外的老师也可以考虑。”
日本的补习班（juku），也就是培训学校产业价值大约100亿美元。而英语口语课程就占据了当中很大一块市场。随着互联网的发展，智能手机的日益普及，很多这些课程被搬到了线上。
这对线下实体学校造成了很大冲击，因为对于学习者而言，在线学习更为划算，以至于目前许多实体学校已如强弩之末，而在线教育却已经成了日本最热的创业领域之一。
“2007年，日本最大的实体英语培训学校Nova破产之后，整个日本培训市场一度停滞不前，但近几年，情况有了转机。”Schwartz解释说：“Rarejob现在已经上市了，你可以看到它的财务状况，其注册用户数量增长了将近50%。DMM的增长还要快。它们是日本在线市场上，最主要的两个竞争对手。而去年，我们的收入也增长了90%。”
还有一件事进一步证实了日本在线辅导热潮的火爆，上周的亚洲科技东京舞台上，日本国内的在线教育公司Mana.bo就拿下了特等奖。
Japanese edtech startup acquired by US startup amid online tutoring boom
American edtech startup EnglishCentral earlier this week announced the acquisition of a Japanese startup offering similar online tutoring for English learners. Langrich will be acquired in a share-swap agreement that sees the Tokyo-based startup’s investors – KLab Ventures and Hitomedia – become minority shareholders in EnglishCentral. According to a KLab spokesperson, it marks the first time that a Japanese startup has been acquired by a larger American one.
Founded in 2010, Langrich uses English tutors in the Philippines to provide English instruction via Skype. Like its main competitors, Rarejob and DMM, lessons are one-on-one and focus on conversation skills. Langrich users will now benefit from a video lesson archive for web and mobile, as well as EnglishCentral’s speech recognition technology for studying vocabulary and pronunciation.
“We will keep the Langrich brand as our consumer brand in Japan,” Alan Schwartz, EnglishCentral’s CEO, tells Tech in Asia. “EnglishCentral will remain the name of the company and the name of the platform that we provide to our global partners, including many leading online learning companies […] in Korea, China, and Brazil.”
EnglishCentral, headquartered in Arlington, Massachusetts, boasts more than 100,000 paying users per month. The service is available in more than 100 countries and at over 400 universities across the globe. Perhaps EnglishCentral’s biggest differentiator in the crowded edtech space is its money-back guarantee – the startup refunds 100 percent of a student’s lesson fees if they don’t level up after three months.
Schwartz says that EnglishCentral will retail all of Langrich’s current employees – a total of 260 including teachers. “We’re also adding dozens of teachers a month, and we will not limit teacher hiring to the Philippines going forward,” he adds.
The Japanese juku – cram school – industry is valued at roughly US$10 billion.Eikaiwa – conversational English lessons – take a big chunk of that market. With strong internet infrastructure and a population that’s increasingly fond of smartphones, many of those lessons are moving online. That could hurt brick-and-mortar schools, which have already faltered, since online learning is more cost effective for learners. This shift to online has created, arguably, one of Japan’s hottest startup verticals.
“After the Nova implosion (once Japan’s largest physical English conversation school, Nova went bankrupt in 2007), the whole market in Japan stalled, but things have changed in last several years,” Schwartz explains. “Rarejob is now public and you can see from their financials they are growing at close to 50 percent in terms of registered users. DMM we believe is growing even faster. They are the main competitors in the online market in Japan that have traction. We grew 90 percent last year in terms of revenue.”
Further evidence of Japan’s online tutoring boom could be seen at Tech in Asia Tokyo’s Arena pitch battle last week, where domestic edtech startup Mana.bo took the grand prize.
Editing by Terence Lee
Source:techinasia
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2015年09月15日
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亚洲市场大浪淘沙，这5家SaaS公司值得借鉴
到2015年底，软件即服务 (SaaS) 在亚太地区的市场估值很可能达到43亿美元，而在2008年，该市场估值只有3.8亿美元。SaaS当前正在向客户关系管理、企业信息化、人力资源、以及A / B测试这些领域渗透，所面临的区域竞争者的数量也随之与日俱增。
根据普华永道会计师事务所的报道，到2016年底，对SaaS的投资有可能上升到780亿美元。虽然现在已经有越来越多的企业踏足了SaaS领域，想要从中分一块蛋糕，但是我这里只列出了五家公司。这五家公司从很早就进入了这个领域，SaaS从新生事物发展到今天这个规模，他们功不可没。
在线客户服务平台Freshdesk
2010年，印度金奈人Girish Mathrubootham 和Shanmugam Krishnaswamy联合创立了Freshdesk，这个是一个在线客户服务平台，让企业和客户在各渠道均能便捷互动，包括手机、电子邮箱和社交网络。这是第一家获得Google Capital（ 谷歌风投）支持的印度公司 。从2014到2015年，Google Capital、 美国顶尖对冲基金Tiger Global以及世界五大风投公司之一的Accel Partners总计向Freshdesk投资了8100万美元。
Freshdesk致力于根据客户需求提供个性化产品，它在145个国家都有用户基础，最近的一年里更是拥有了4万名企业客户。
Wingify
Wingify于2009年创立，其产品VWO，是一款转化率优化工具，也是一个A / B测试平台。它会将网站设计成两种风格，两个版本网站的流量也会分开计算，这样你就可以看出哪一种更受欢迎。VWO还会提供一定技术支持，让用户可以对网站进行调整，做一些个性化设置，进行网站优化。网站风格非常重要，说不定你改一个字体，就能影响到销售额，进而影响到公司的发展。
Wingify创始人Chopra对用户留存率和产品易用性非常重视，他会不断接受客户反馈，反复打磨产品。
VWO推出后短短18个月，Wingify就获得了超过100万美元的收入。
去年9月，这家初创公司收购了网站产品意见反馈平台Concept Feedback，Concept Feedback有一批网页设计和用户体验专家，正是Wingify所需。很多企业使用Wingify的产品提升了下载率、注册量和网站销售。目前已经有80个国家，4000左右的用户在使用VWO。
TradeGecko
这家新加坡公司成立于2012年，由Cameron Priest、Bradley Priest以及Carl Thompson联合创立。TradeGecko主要是向企业、生产厂商、批发商以及大部分零售商提供进销存管理软件。近期，该公司获得了来自NSI Ventures 以及Jungle Ventures的650万美元A轮投资。
在过去的三年里，TradeGecko获得了来自100多个国家的1万名客户。TradeGecko的目标是，取代当下风行的企业资源规划，做一个与众不同的库存管理软件。该公司整合了电子商务网站和财务管理软件，包括目前市场上最好的用于个人计算机的小型商务财务软件QuikBooks，把库存管理服务集成到一个平台上。TradeGecko已经在电子商务领域和Amazon、Magento（专业开源电子商务系统）以及Shopify（企业电子商务管理平台）达成合作。打个比方，如果一家企业在亚马逊完成了一笔销售,那么库存列表就会自动更新。
SignEasy
SignEasy，2009年由Sunil Patro创立，是一家总部位于新加坡的创业公司。它让人们可以通过智能手机、平板以及网络签署并填写文件。用户注册应用之后，即可实现电子签名，你可以选择手指触摸输入，也可以使用手写笔来一个漂亮的签名。
为保安全，SignEasy还集成了苹果的指纹识别系统，以此作为身份验证的一部分。该应用提供免费下载，但用户也可以选择程序内购买，比如支付5美元，就可以每年签署十个文件。SignEasy在150个国家拥有超过5万名付费用户。
Hoiio
2007年，Ong Kok Choong在新加坡创立了Hoiio。这家创业公司向企业提供云通信服务及应用，当然，你得先订阅它。Hoiio推出了很多应用，像通信应用、合规应用以及人力资源应用等等，它的目标是让用户花最少的钱，享受最高的工作效率。不过，其中有些应用是要另外付费的。
用户可以根据业务的复杂性来订阅Hoiio的服务。Hoiio向开发人员开放了应用程序接口，让他们可以直接访问语音和短信服务，避免成本的重复投入。该公司还推出了 Hoiio Live，这是一个基于云服务的电话簿，有了它，用户就不必随身携带名片这么麻烦了。目前已经有5000家企业使用Hoiio提供的服务。
5 SaaS startups that have withstood Asia’s test of time
The software-as-a-service (SaaS) market valuation in Asia Pacific is set to reach US$4.3 billion by the end of 2015, up from US$380 million in 2008. As SaaS spreads out into customers relationship management, enterprise messaging, HR solutions, and A/B testing, there has been an increase in the number of strong regional SaaS contenders.
According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers report, investments in SaaS solutions are set to increase to US$78 billion by the end of 2016. While there are more businesses entering the space to claim a piece of the treasure for themselves, here’s a list of five startups that began early in building what the industry has become today.
Freshdesk
The startup was co-founded in 2010 by Girish Mathrubootham and Shanmugam Krishnaswamy in Chennai. Freshdesk is a customer support software that integrates communication channels like phone, email, and social networks to let businesses communicate with customers better. This is the first Indian startup to receive Google Capital backing. Between 2014 and 2015, Google Capital, Tiger Global, and Accel Partners invested a total of US$81 million. Freshdesk works on personalizing its product based on its customers’ requirements. It has customer bases in 145 countries and has on-boarded 40,000 customers in the last year.
Wingify
Founded by Paras Chopra in 2009, Wingify’s product Visual Web Optimizer (VWO) is a conversion rate optimization tool and an A/B testing platform. It designs the website in two styles and splits the traffic of the websites between the two versions to find out which one is doing better. The user can tweak, personalize, and optimize their website with minimal IT help through VWO. The changes in the versions of the website, even if it is the font, affect the sales and consequently the growth of a business.
Chopra worked on user on-boarding, usability and getting consistent feedback to improve its product further.
In the 18 months following VWO’s launch, the startup crossed US$1 million in revenue.
In September last year, the bootstrapped startup acquired Concept Feedback, a community of web design and user experience experts to strengthen its platform. Businesses are using Wingify to improve its rate of downloads, signups, and website sales. The startup currently has 4,000 customers using VWO, across 80 countries.
TradeGecko
This Singapore-based startup was co-founded by Cameron Priest, Bradley Priest, and Carl Thompson in 2012. TradeGecko provides inventory management software to businesses, mostly retailers, manufacturers, and wholesalers. The startup recently raised US$6.5 million in series A fundingfrom NSI Ventures and Jungle Ventures.
Over the last three years, TradeGecko has acquired 10,000 customers from over 100 countries. TradeGecko’s vision was to supersede enterprise resource planning, another form of inventory management business software. The startup integrated ecommerce websites and financial management software, inluding QuikBooks, to centralize the inventory management service. TradeGecko has tied up with Amazon, Magento, and Shopify, for ecommerce. For example, if a business makes a sale on Amazon, then the inventory list automatically updated.
SignEasy
SignEasy is a Bangalore-based startup founded by Sunil Patro in 2009. It is a mobile-first solution to electronically sign and fill documents from smartphones, tablets, and web. The user can register with the app and use finger touch input or stylus to save their signature.
SignEasy also integrated with Apple’s fingerprint recognition system as part of authentication for security. The app is free to download, though the user can opt for in-app purchases such as pay US$5 to sign ten documents a year. The app has over 50,000 paying customers across 150 countries.
Hoiio
Ong Kok Choong founded Hoiio in Singapore in 2007. The startup provides cloud communication and apps to businesses on a subscription basis. Hoiio also has built communication, compliance, and human resource apps. It aims to boost its customers’ productivity at a lower costs, but does charge separately for certain apps.
Depending on the complexity of the business, Hoiio’s services can be subscribed. It launched APIs for developers to access voice and SMS services without incurring huge costs. The startup also launched Hoiio Live, which is a cloud-based phonebook to avoid the hassle of carrying business cards. Hoiio currently has 5,000 businesses using its services.
Source:techinasia
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