Learning beyond Boundaries

Singapore EdTech company Soqqle expands its reach to Hong Kong, planting a flag in the heart of Asia to better serve the growing community.

The educational technology (EdTech) industry has seen remarkable development in recent years. It goes beyond the boundaries of traditional school education by creating a more engaging and interactive learning environment and providing a wider choice of materials that are easily accessible online. EdTech startup Soqqle expanded its reach to Hong Kong in 2021 to capture Asia’s enormous market potential. The company explores new learning methods in the metaverse through stories, dialogues, and visual representation. Incorporating a suite of authoring tools to transform learning content into exciting 3D games and scenario-based virtual scenes, the social mobile learning application allows educators to create custom content that caters to different learning needs, such as idea generation and collaborative knowledge building.

Regional Education Hub

Hong Kong is home to 22 degree-awarding higher education institutions. Five universities are featured in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings top 100 list, demonstrating the high quality of the city’s education system. According to Daniel Shen, Founder of Soqqle, the vibrant education landscape in Hong Kong is one of the critical factors in his decision to develop business here. Shen stated, “The city’s education market is renowned for its diversity and internationalism. The openness and willingness to share knowledge and expertise among individuals and institutions create a collaborative environment that is conducive to piloting new innovative methods and nurturing entrepreneurship.”

“I am quite surprised by the vast opportunities for EdTech startups here. The resources available in Hong Kong are extensive and transparent, providing a strong foundation for entrepreneurs to build great businesses. These include government funds such as Quality Education Fund and Innovation and Technology Fund, Invest Hong Kong’s business support, talent recruitment, networking opportunities and product showcases.” Shen said, adding that the incubation programme, office space, and mentorship offered by the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) is also of great importance to Soqqle’s growth.

Transforming Next-generation Education

Soqqle is powered by top-notch technology, including robot-assisted smart learning, social learning analytics, and big data analytics to create scenes in the metaverse for a range of course topics covering geography, science, economics, language, and more.

“Our goal is to improve education through technology and gaming. Our metaverse product Classlet is at the heart of our mission. Educators can use our intuitive tools to customise and add content to easily convert age-old slides and videos into interactive 3D experiences. This way, case studies can be transformed into immersive scenarios with game-based learning that is visually engaging. It is a powerful complement to contemporary classrooms,” Shen said.

Soqqle partners with local universities to drive academic research and innovation. For instance, in collaboration with Science Unit of Lingnan University, they developed a metaverse representation of Mong Kok to educate students about waste and pollution. “Looking to the future, we aim to serve more higher education institutions and secondary schools in Hong Kong. With its diverse resources and sophisticated digital infrastructure, Hong Kong is an ideal test pad for creating EdTech solutions. We will leverage the city’s unique strengths and adopt the business model here to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and other Asian markets,” Shen concluded.