Singapore-based college-to-career platform Kinobi today announced a US$1 million in seed financing led by an undisclosed corporate venture capital firm in Indonesia.
Several family offices and angels in the region also joined.
The funding will be used to support Kinobi’s reach to university partners across Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.
“We’re merely scratching the surface in Jakarta and Manila. The hunger from students to succeed drives me every day to build a product so good that it helps them succeed better,” said Benjamin Wong, co-founder and CEO of Kinobi.
Launched in 2021, Kinobi aims to bridge the “last-mile” education for Gen Z youths, helping them through the transition from finishing formal education to beginning a career.
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The company also operates as a SaaS platform for universities and career centres to track and benchmark their students’ job readiness and submit outcomes to the board and the government.
So far, Kinobi claimed to have provided service to more than 150,000 students and 51 universities in Southeast Asia, including 23 universities in Indonesia. It is on track to onboard 200 member universities of Indonesia Career Center Network (ICCN) in the next three months, according to a press release.
“Career success is more important for Gen Zs than any other generation. They have more debt, fewer earnings and higher unemployment,” stated the company. “There is also tremendous stress on university and career centres by governments and parents to perform and show that the earned degree is worth its value.”
Kinobi counts top private universities, such as Singapore Management University, Singapore Institute of Management, and PSB Academy, among its partners.
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As per the e-Conomy report 2021 by Google, TEMASEK, and Bain & Company, edutech in SEA demonstrated healthy growth potential in H1 2o21 with US$200 million in funding. However, scaling remains a core challenge as this sector requires a country-driven approach for education.
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Image credit: Kinobi
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