Singapore-based edtech startup Flying Cape today announced that it has raised USD$1.5 million in Series A funding through venture firms Start-up O and EduSpaze, with participation from angel investors. The funds will be used to continue scaling Flying Cape’s operations in China and throughout Southeast Asia.
“Covid-19 has dramatically transformed the Education landscape. Through this period, we have seen local education players in Singapore evolve, and emerge with more innovative digitalised content and engaging learning concepts to better prepare learners for the future. Our new funding will enable us to accelerate our growth into new markets across Southeast Asia over the next two years. With this expansion, Flying Cape will build an interconnected educational ecosystem that brings the best of Singapore’s education curriculum and content to international learners,” – Jamie Tan, CEO and Founder of Flying Cape.
In addition, Dr. Paul Kim, Chief Technology Officer & Assistant Dean Stanford University Graduate School of Education, has joined Flying Cape’s Board of Advisors. Dr. Kim is also the Founder and Advisor of Seeds of Empowerment which is a Non-profit Global Education Institute funded by UNESCO and the advisor of Asian Development Bank. As Flying Cape’s advisor, he will guide the design of technology tools to support Flying Cape’s educational development goals, recommendation framework and pedagogy for curriculum development.
Flying Cape soars with SMART learning technology
Flying Cape is currently Singapore’s largest tuition and enrichment marketplace. Working with academics in pedagogy and education, they developed their proprietary SMART diagnostic assessment for parents to understand their children’s learning style, interests and passions, and find the best-fit classes through personalized recommendations. Since then, Flying Cape has built on their expertise in personalised education, and levelled-up its repertoire of B2C and B2B edtech services and solutions powered by validated research, data and analytics.
Currently, Flying Cape powers 10 SMART marketplaces serving learners of different groups, from children to adult learning. Through Flying Cape’s proprietary recommendation technology, learners are able to find the “right fit” during their learning journey based on their unique learning profiles. Its proprietary engine has been proven effective in catering to specialised needs. One example is the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) platform, powered by Flying Cape to provide finance and professional development courses based on their unique Competency Framework.
With almost 1000 education partners in Singapore and overseas, and an integrated ecosystem with major distribution channels, Flying Cape has successfully built an ecosystem which aims to ensure matching and administration is as efficient as possible. Partners utilising Flying Cape’s solutions and ecosystem have reported being able to transform their operations, via automated processes and real time reporting and data tracking, to achieve over 30% reduction in operating costs.
“We have managed to accelerate our growth through Covid-19 uncertainties. Over the past 12 months, we’ve seen an increase in traffic and transaction volumes by more than 400%. Furthermore, we have also expanded our network of partners from 800 to1000. To give learners more options for finding just the right fit for their learning, we are also working closely with overseas education providers to offer a larger variety of enrichment options — such as Chinese Language and Art educators from China and music instructors from London,” – Lydia Ang, Head of Business Development at Flying Cape.
Flying Cape China gives learners a competitive edge through OSSD programme
The funds have enabled Flying Cape to set up a physical presence in China, with their own local Chinese team. Since their launch, Flying Cape China has been awarded exclusive partnerships to manage the highly-regarded Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) for China, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Accredited by globally-recognised institutions, completion of the OSSD programme will enable students to gain admission credits for entry to a network of top-tier overseas universities.
The Flying Cape OSSD programme will be supported by Singapore-based, bilingual teachers through the design of interactive learning modes and supplemented by the best of Singapore curriculum, giving students the essential skills needed to succeed in higher education and beyond.
The programme will commence in September 2021. To date, more than 20 partnerships have been successfully established with learning centres across China to deliver the Flying Cape OSSD curriculum, with the network continuing to grow.
“Flying Cape is led by creative individuals with a vision of changing the future of education for the better through innovation and technology. With its strong growth and wide reach, Flying Cape has the potential to become an important intellectual hub for education and technology globally.,” – Francis Tay, senior advisor to Start-up O and Flying Cape.
