Inspired by his family, this startup is now on track to make learning better using tech

Evetag is a learning marketplace that gives all ages learners the freedom to learn online and in-person, by exploring their interests with highly qualified and vetted teachers.

Parents are able to access a wide range of subjects for their kids, including music, language, chess and STEM topics such as robotics and coding. It also offers lessons like scuba diving, acrylic painting, nail artistry, DJ scratching, and saxophone for adults.

With the aim to make learning fun and less stressful, Evetag wants to enhance the learning culture, by gathering cool and creative classes for kids and lifelong learners, provide access to after-school classes for kids, and even for adults to dive deeper into their favourite interests and desired skillsets.

Enhance learning culture for the next generation

Growing up in a family of teachers, Jimmy Chong was a straight-A student all the way to his Master’s degree. But after being an engineer for 3 years, it dawned on him that the work wasn’t what he wanted out of life.

Instead, he wanted to found his own startup that was aligned with the educational environment he hoped to provide for his kids. Partnering with his wife, Ichin, who’s also an HRDF certified corporate trainer in the past, the couple founded Evetag.

Jimmy and Ichin, co-founders of Evetag said, “When we found out we are going to have a newborn, we started thinking of what type of education we want to send him to, until then we realized we want to give him as much exposure as possible, beginning from his early childhood stage.”

Making learning fun, easier, accessible, and convenient

Users are able to learn multiple skills on this single platform, without necessarily having to leave the house or find referrals for tutors who have the skillsets to teach the classes. Parents looking for tutors for their children will also feel more safe and secure knowing that they are engaging in a trusted learning environment.

Using a pay-per-class model, users can simply book a slot for a course of their interest and pay the teachers through Evetag’s payment gateway. Users will also be earning reward points when signing up for lessons, which can be used as a discount in their next purchase or redeem other cool stuff.

To date, at least 500 classes have been conducted through Evetag, attended by 3,000 users on the site. This coming mid-October, Evetag will also be launching their new web app version and introduce the mobile app before year-end.

Helping educators to focus on what they do best: Teaching

Looking at his parents running a tuition centre since young, Jimmy also realizes the problems faced by small, medium and micro-enterprise (SMME) in the education segment. To tackle their pain points, Evetag provides the technology infrastructure for them to operate more effectively, providing sales tools to attract more students, a backend system to manage their student records and simplify their operation paperwork.

“Teachers are able to create, publish and sell their classes on Evetag, we are aware different educators have their own speciality and USP, and we embrace that,” Jimmy explained.

Evetag takes a minimum 5% cut for each successful transaction, and teachers will receive the settlement after class begins.

More than 250 educators that are currently on Evetag, called EdPartners, all went through an interview with the platform’s team to pitch their services, supported with testimonials as a reference for their classes’ quality.

In the case of any possible disputes in the future, EdPartners are protected as they must also provide their company registrations or personal details to verify their services.

Trial sessions with new educators and selected users are also held so the former can gain insights and validation for their services on the platform.

Startup Journey With MaGIC

Evetag has successfully completed the 3-month program under Cohort 5 of the Virtual Global Accelerator Programme (GAP) organised by the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC).

“We learned a lot through the mock pitch session with mentors, Coach Boon, Agnes, Khairul and many others who help us to identify what and how to present ourselves during our pitch, guide us by strategically arranging the flow and complement with Q&A” Jimmy recalled.

“Exposure from the Leet Academy and Proficeo team on the methodology and terminology related to the startup and fundraising community is also very crucial to us, especially at this stage.”

Moving forward, Evetag is setting a new goal for its GMV sales. To reach its target, Jimmy stated that it’s crucial for the team to secure more quality, yet affordable courses on the platform.

“We are planning to collaborate with more education segments, including Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platforms to allow our users to access more learning opportunities,” Jimmy said. MOOCs offer accessible and affordable remote learning available opportunities to students all over the world.

Being a part of MaGIC’s GAP Cohort 5 will also open Evetag’s team up to collaborative opportunities with other startups, including those in the Southeast Asia region.

He further added, “We plan to introduce our Learn-To-Earn concept by integrating the NFT element into the learning experience. Inspired by the Axie Infinity Play-To-Earn model, we want to redefine the purpose of learning, giving learners extra motivation to learn, hopping on blockchain technology to attract, reward, and recognise learners more in a more innovative way.”

Evetag would be able to do so through their recent funding of half a million Ringgit from Agmo Studio, a software development firm that has served 8 Fortune 500 companies in the past decade.

“With the addition of Mr Tan Aik Keong into our team as the CTO, and with [the company’s] capacity to adopt AI and blockchain technology, we are looking forward to pushing our marketplace to a higher level, and serving our users better,” hoped Jimmy.

This content is provided by Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC).

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