Education technology (edutech) company Cakap has been nominated as a centaur after receiving series C funding from MDI Ventures and Heritas Capital with undisclosed funds. Following the granting of the fresh funds, Cakap’s valuation now reaches up to between US$100 million to US$ 1 billion (IDR 1.5 to 14.8 trillion).
Established in 2014, PT Smart Digital Nusantara or Cakap is a startup company in the edutech sector that focuses on application development and an online two-way learning platform. The company provides services for learning foreign languages, business training, and upskills.
Cakap continues business synergy with Telkom, and MDI
The company will utilize the recently obtained funding to develop business in the field of blended learning (offline and online). Although, Cakap did not disclose the amount obtained, the company succeeded achieving the Centaur status and has the potential to be named as a Unicorn company.
“With more options such as blended learning, it will be easier for the community to choose a customized way of learning,” said Tomy Yunus Tjen, CEO & Co-founder of Cakap.
MDI Ventures and Heritas Capital are the investors who have provided fresh funds to Cakap previously in 2021, leading the US$ 10 million series B round.
Chik Wai Chiew, CEO & Executive Director of Heritas Capital views Cakap as the leading edutech company in Indonesia. Chiew believed that Cakap has great potential to continue to grow and create a good impact throughout Southeast Asia.
Recently, Cakap has expanded its business to Timor Leste after by cooperating with MDI Ventures, and utilizing PT Telkom Indonesia (Persero) Tbk network to operate in Timor Leste.
Donald Wihardja, CEO of MDI Ventures, said he hoped that this latest funding would further strengthen the synergy between Cakap and the Telkom Group as a whole and with MDI in particular
Trends & demands for online learning
At present the trend of online learning is increasingly in demand due to changes in learning methods in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Forbes, the global e-learning market will grow by US$ 325 billion by 2025, or double the growth over the past decade. Since the 2020 pandemic, e-learning has grown tremendously.
Based on the 2022 digital report, as many as 58.5% of internet users in Indonesia use online videos as learning media, and are considered suitable for the digital generation because they are interested and motivated to learn, and easily understand the material presented.
