Edtech accelerator EduSpaze picks 9 startups as its first cohort

EDUCATIONAL technology accelerator EduSpaze has picked nine edtech startups to join its inaugural cohort following a selection process which garnered 200 applicants across 25 countries.

Seven of the selected startups are from Singapore. They are Vere360, HARDSKILLS, Practicle, Yumcha Studios, Flying Cape, ACKTEC Technologies and ArcLab. Meanwhile, Makers Empire is from Australia and FutureLab is from Malaysia.

The startups have been slotted into different educational categories - namely Pre-K (pre-kindergarten), K-12 (kindergarten to grade 12), higher education and corporate learning.

EduSpaze is managed by seed capital firm and startup incubator Spaze Ventures, and is supported by Enterprise Singapore. It looks to help early-stage edtech companies with up to S$500,000 in funding, providing a customised accelerator programme, mentor support and a live sandbox environment in the region for proof-of-concept implementations.

During a 100-day programme, EduSpaze will work with the startups' founders on market fit, client discovery, product development, scalability, revenue generation and strategies to attract follow-on capital investment.

In the third week of the programme, Education Alliance Finland (EAF), which specialises in educational quality verification, will conduct evaluations on the startup's product and pedagogy. Each startup will then receive an endorsed report with a customised roadmap.

"These startups will receive evidence-based and concrete suggestions to better improve the impact of their product," said Niko Lindholm, programme director of EduSpaze and former director of the xEdu sector edtech accelerator in Helsinki, Finland.