Learning English the card way
- It’s time for kids to get physical! Lingokids, a 500-backed startup specializing in educational content for young children, made the jump from the digital world to launch an offline board game.
- Lingokids Memory®, which aims to help children from 3 years of age learn simple vocabulary in English, was developed in collaboration with educational games company and investor Ravensburger.
- With the help of characters in the Lingokids app, the board game enhances visual memory, cognitive ability, concentration, and rapid thinking. It is currently available in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain and will be released in more countries soon.
- “All our digital content is based on the Playlearning™ methodology, which uses games to improve the learning process,” said Cristóbal Viedma, CEO of Lingokids.
- Read the full article in Bloomberg.
Supporting the heart & soul of Indonesia’s MSMEs
- Over the last two years, 80% of tech users among mom-and-pop retail stores (warung) adopted online-to-offline (O2O) apps to help in running the business. Apps such as Mitra Bukalapak from 500-backed Bukalapak are critical in helping the country modernize and digitalize its traditional retail sector.
- “It started in 2018 when we talked to a mom-and-pop shop next to our office. The feedback was that they felt left out by digitalization and e-commerce. We wanted to bridge this big divide, build a fair economy for all, and give an opportunity to the warungs to improve their livelihood,” shared Howard Gani, CEO of Mitra Bukalapak, at a DealStreetAsia event.
- “Ever since, we have grown to 10 million registered mitras, serving about 50 million offline customers a month…Our internal surveys say that on average, a mitra can grow 3X,” he added.
- Khailee Ng, Managing Partner at 500 Global said, “One of the biggest draws for us to invest back in 2014 was the DNA of the company. Bukalapak really understood the power of community and that Indonesia is much more than Tier 1 cities.”
- “People all over Indonesia want to enjoy the same conveniences as city-dwellers while shopping: whether it gets delivered to them or can be picked up right next door. Today’s world is about ‘all-commerce’: online to offline; offline to online – that’s what Bukalapak has been able to do. Urbanization is not about location but access,” he concluded.
Rolling with the seasons
- As an e-florist and gifting platform, 500-backed BloomThis has had its fair share of peak seasons since it launched in 2015. Periods like Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day can push demand to 10x compared to regular days. How does the startup cope?
- With much difficulty at first, but the team learned an early lesson on the importance of digitalization and the adoption of technology.
- Preparation and anticipation are key, said co-founder and CEO Giden Lim. For example, setting up a pre-order system can help entrepreneurs make informed decisions.
- “It is important to remember not to bite off more than you can chew,” he shared. “We always do our post-mortems after every peak season to learn what we can improve in order to give our customers a better experience in the future.”
- He added that setting short-term and long-term goals can further motivate businesses during difficult seasons.
- Read the full feature to learn more about BloomThis and four other Malaysian startups with seasonal businesses.
