Northstar, East Ventures Inject Vietnamese Edtech Startup “PREP”

Startups EdTech from Vietnam, PREP, obtained funding from Northstar Group, via Northstar Ventures. This round was joined by previous investors, East Ventures, citing regulatory fillings via Alternative.PE.

“We are proud to announce our latest investment by Northstar Ventures I in a startup EdTech Vietnam, PREP!," wrote a Northstar representative via account LinkedIn.

It was further stated that Northstar was interested in funding PREP because there was promising potential in the field EdTech. Throughout 2022, there were more than 350 thousand students from Southeast Asia studying abroad. Around 132 thousand of them are students from Vietnam.

Northstar sees this growing trend as bringing awareness to the importance of language certification for Vietnamese students pursuing international education. “We believe PREP is well positioned to capitalize on this demand!”, concluded the post.

According to Alternative.PE, this round was not only led by Northstar Ventures, there was also a previous investor, Cercano Management. East Ventures reportedly injected additional funding of $500 thousand into Prep.

Both Cercano and East Ventures are previous investors in PREP in April 2023. At that time, the nominal investment disbursed was $1 billion.

PREP was founded in 2020 by Thu Pham (CEO) and Tran Hoai Nam (CTO). This startup offers a variety of online course solutions and simulated exam practice that focuses on standardized languages, such as IELTS, TOEIC, and high school graduation exams. PREP delivers interactive content that encourages engagement and active participation among students.

From a technological perspective, PREP simulates a real exam situation that is immersive and interactive, and can be personalized and adapted to the student's learning style, pace and preferences.

Based on data from PREP, high-quality standardized test preparation services are always in demand in Vietnam. The language learning market in Vietnam is said to have tremendous potential, with an estimated market size of $2,1 billion, of which $1,6 billion is for the English market and the remainder for other languages.

For the record, PREP is not East Ventures' only portfolio in Vietnam. Previously there were several names, including Medigo, Vietcetera, CirCO, Sendo, and Kim An Group.

The ecosystem in Vietnam is increasingly interesting

Apple's interest in investing more in Vietnam rather than Indonesia is increasingly interesting to discuss. Quoting from Kompas.id, Vietnam has 10 reasons as a foreign investment destination, namely its strategic location, high economic growth, stable government, the presence of young workers, ease of doing business, the existence of special industrial zones, an attractive investment climate, consumer growth, world economic networks through signings. free trade area (FTA) with many countries and regions, as well as integration of local regulations with world regulations.

Previously, the Vietnamese government carried out an economic reform program, named "doi moi", meaning openness and reform. Doi moi opens up a large-scale private role, including business incentives. Then, explore aspects of education to open up the country to not only provide low-wage, but also productive, young workers.

This strategy produced positive results because Vietnam was able to become a country that assembles electronic goods and information technology with relatively cheap wages.

Another advantage, the report continued, is that Vietnam has regulations that are in sync from the center to the regions and is geographically close to China. However, this country is at the forefront of the effects of world geopolitical attitudes, which can change at any time and be arbitrary, but can also change friendly. They are neutral towards the United States and China.