Renaissance pushed for education

Driven by a passion for technology, Krating Poonpol, who could be considered the biggest influence on the Thai start-up ecosystem, has opened a new chapter in his career with the launch of education technology (edtech) accelerator StormBreaker Venture.
StormBreaker Venture is founded and operated by Disrupt Technology Venture Co and is funded by many investors. 
Krating, the founder of Disrupt Technology Venture, said the edtech start-up industry in Thailand is still in the infant stages compared with other parts of the world where it is a big industry. For example, in China there are unicorn start-ups such as VIP Kid and iTutor. One is already a listed company with a US$4 billion valuation, while another one has a $3 billion valuation. This is a renaissance phase in edtech.
It aims to create five edtech start-ups in 2018, and another 10 in 2019. In 2020, there will be products and services aimed at transforming the education system and impacting a million to 10 million people in 2020 in Thailand.
“Zero to one and from one to ten, my passion is to change the country by creating future leaders. I believe education can create change for all,” said Krating.
EdTech aims to play an important role in addressing the pain points of the education system. Therefore, Thailand and other countries in Southeast Asia have the most potential to leapfrog in edtech in the next five years.
StormBreaker Venture is an ongoing project from Education Disruption Conference & Hackathon, which was set up at the beginning of this year. 
It will focus on five priority areas: English learning (English for All); STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) and Coding for All; Cloud-Powered School; Teacher of The Future; and Reskill Professional.
“Thais need an effective learning platform that can be easily accessed all around the country, which also includes STEM subjects. The Thai education system is not modern enough and lacks an efficient operating system to minimise the work overload of teachers from unnecessary non-teaching tasks. 
“The cloud-powered school has been created to help teachers focus more on the teaching process. Our teachers still need to resell their profession as the ‘Teacher of The Future’, and need more efficient equipment for working in the future. The learning process in the digital technology era is not defined only in schools and universities. Everyone of all age groups should “Reskill Professional” to be prepared for the instant transformation in the digital disruption era,” said Krating.
“These are just a few examples regarding the education opportunity that needs to be fulfilled with start-ups or technology and this only needs true dedication and intention to change our country with a powerful education system impacting over 1 million Thais to get a good-quality education system that they deserve,” said Krating.
Thailand cannot change without a revolution in education. 
The start-ups ecosyetem in Thailand is growing rapidly but it is faced with the problem of shortage of talent. It needs to create the education innovation ecosystem, said Krating.
Only five teams will be selected in the three-month intensive and exclusive bootcamp and have a demo day in January 2019. The qualified start-ups will be granted funding from Bt500,000 to Bt 1.5 million per start-up with a runway connected to the top regional and global edtech venture capital until series A.
StormBreaker Venture has three main partners to support the programme’s edtech start-ups – Line Thailand, Learn Capital, the venture capital specialising in edtech with funding of over Bt1 billion, and 500 TukTuks II. 

Solving educational problems
The candidates must have qualifications and the teams should have expertise in business, in technology as a programer or developer, and in education. Moreover, they need to already have a product or prototype or MVP tested in the real market. Last but not least, they should have the capability to solve educational problems for more than 1 million people and a strong potential to expand and grow regionally.
“There is no limit to gender, age, or career. We are looking for someone with determination and passion to transform education and Thailand,” said Krating.
They will be trained by world-class mentors and advisers and many top national mentors, including Michael Staton – a partner of Learn Capital and a world top-100 innovator in education; Luis Pinto, the global operations partner of Learn Capital, as well as former executives of Microsoft for Education. 
The StormBreaker Venture has also partnered with Thailand Education Partners to facilitate start-ups to do field tests and experiment with the prototype in the Education Sandbox in three provinces – Satun, Chon Buri, and Kalasin – which together have around 2,000 schools.
“They will have an opportunity to gain investment funds from Line Scale-up Package and Line Thailand. The start-ups might also get an opportunity to receive Line official and be one of the official Line services funded by Line Thailand,” said Krating.
He invited anyone with a strong passion to transform education for more than 1 million people and interested in joining the project to submit their applications by August 24 to the following link:
https://www.disruptignite.com/accelerator/edtech-accelerator 
The qualifying teams will be announced on August 31.