Stormbreaker Venture, the very first ed-tech focused accelerator of its kind in Thailand and Southeast Asia, aims to revolutionise Thailand’s Education industry and enrich society’s capability and readiness for the digital era.

StormBreaker said it has set an ambitious goal of revolutionising the education of one million Thais by 2020. The venture has already made great strides towards its goal, with its first batch of promising Startups positively impacting the lives of over 150,000 students since the inception of the program.

The program is confident that Thailand’s ed-tech ecosystem can elevate itself into one of the top ecosystems in Southeast Asia and create a Thai born and bred Ed-Tech “Unicorn” within the next five years.

The four startups from StormBreaker’s Accelerator’s first batch, having gone through an intense action-packed accelerator program, are now ready to scale up their impact starting from; Team Vonder, an educational chatbot pioneer, that has already transformed the way 70,000 students learn, in addition to 30,000 more working professionals.

Team Voxy, a revolutionary English learning platform utilising AI for personalised learning.

Team InsKru, uniting forces across the nation to enhance the way Thais teacher teach by disseminating ideas to over 38,000 teacher and 50,000 students.

Lastly, Team OpenDurian, an industry leader in online education boasting revenues of over Bt49 million, aiming to breed more than 500,000 skilled talent to prepare and respond to the impending digital disruption.

Looking forward, Stormbreaker is now accepting applications for ed-tech startups to join its 2nd Batch from today up until 17th May 2019.

Krating Poonpol, founder of 500 TukTuks and Disrupt Technology Venture, explained that StormBreaker Venture stages incubation programs for operators in the ed-tech industry, which stems from a desire to revolutionise the Thai education system by leveraging technologies in order for the nation to be able to thrive in today’s digital age.

The first batch of the StormBreaker incubation program serves as a successful first step in ramping up the capabilities of the education sector to answer the global demands of employment in the age of digital disruption.

Furthermore, the program constitutes a step towards realising a goal through which one million individuals can easily access quality education and gain new educational experiences within 2020.

With only four months having passed since its inception, the program has positively enriched the learning experiences of more than 150,000 students and laid the foundation to place Thai ed-tech startups on the global stage as members of Southeast Asia’s top thriving ed-tech ecosystems.

Krating said: “The Edtech investment market shows promising trends which are quickly catching the eye of investors given its substantial growth. This can be confirmed by the amount of VC investments in ed-tech which is greater than $9.52 billion (Bt299.6 billion). What’s more, this success was achieved from a pool of only 813 ed-tech startups and at more than 30 per cent growth.

“Next year, 2020, holds true to this tend of growth, where global Edtech Startup investment is expected to exceed $10 billion USD, or Bt313.005 billion. In Southeast Asia alone, it is anticipated to make up more than Bt4.695 billion of the global total, with Thailand accounting for Bt156 – Bt313 million of this.

“The future of ed-tech looks promising and is certain to disrupt and enhance large pre-existing educations sectors, e.g. English or other language training, professional reskilling, personalised learning pathways, as well as career accelerators. We are starting to see applications of deep tech, for example AI, Machine Learning, Mixed Reality, IoT, and Cognitive Learning find real manifestations in the newer generations of Edtech Startups. Thailand’s ed-tech ecosystem may still be in its beginning stages, but with such talent and creativity we anticipate growth of up to 100 per cent within this year.”

Krating added that StormBreaker Venture stands ready to act as the catalyst for Edtech Startups in propelling them to the forefront of the Southeast Asian ecosystem.

Complementing the StormBreaker Venture program, Krating said various forms of support are also being offered by the government, including matching funds, which support ed-tech startups by providing funds higher than those provided to other sectors; the Edtech Marketplace which offers tax deductions for public and private organizations using ed-tech products and services; incentives for pilot experiments in education institutions who support using edt-ech in innovative areas or projects related to ed-tech at all levels which can be classified as using online media to enrich a school’s learning program; and even lower interest rates for ed-tech startup loans.

All in all, these forms of support are all guidelines that can help drive the education ecosystem to new heights as well as foster education innovation in Thailand through rapid growth.

The London-based global information provider IHS Markit recently shared ways to improve the experience at the Mobile World Congress2019 in Barcelona.

Elias Aravantinos, a senior analyst at IHS Markit, told a press conference on Tuesday that premium broadband services usually results in growing the revenues of businesses around the world, citing the firm’s newly-launched white paper entitled “Home Broadband Experience Index”.

“We need to change our way of doing business in the IT new era,” he said.

Aravantinos said broadband has become a necessity in most households, and it is often considered an essential utility such as water and electricity.

“With broadband being bought as a commodity today, service providers must listen to consumers more effectively through their customer care and marketing channels, as the feedback may open opportunities to offer tailored consumer packages,” he said.

Aravantinos said service providers could reduce churn and more efficiently grow their revenues by offering and achieving a superior experience across the various levels of the broadband consumers.

“A plug-and-play broadband home increases consumer satisfaction, from the beginning of their journey,” he said.

“Consumers want to complete processes quickly, without any |specific knowledge. Service providers are encouraged to offer equipment that comfortably suits online needs.”

The index aims to identify opportunities for improvement across various stages of the end-user life cycle. It supports the benchmarking of markets through a defined system of measures, and focuses on the customers’ desires.

The analyst said premium services offer a significant advantage to society, as it enables access to knowledge and information including healthcare, education and safety of citizens.

To him, there is a role that service providers should consider playing – not only offering premium broadband experience, but also advancing the digital society to the next level.

“A combination of highly reliable connectivity, customised offers and high-quality services are the key to attractive smart home packages,” he said. Aravantinos considers service consciousness as another feature of the premium broadband experience.

He urged service providers to offer the most positive user experience as possible as they can.

“The development of new business models that are driven by user customisation may propel the evolution of the premium broadband experience,” he said.

According to Aravantinos, creating a standard for premium home networking helps service providers respond to the consumer need for high-level service and effective WiFi at home.

As the increase in global data transmission is directly linked to the deployment of fibre-optic cable, service providers should adopt a premium network standard, a fibre -based solution, along with a premium WiFi solution to respond to the consumers’ needs, he said.

During the media briefing, Aravantinos also discussed multiple issues and challenges facing service providers globally, including limited selection of service packages, long subscription process, peak hour speed downgrades, and slow response to customers’ complaints.

He also talked about the five key components of service providers: marketing impact, service provisioning, service perception, network performance and customer care.

“A standardised in-home service will work to eliminate the last-mile bottleneck that significantly impacts the broadband service of end users,” he said.

A non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) was announced by the banks’ major shareholders and chief executives, in a TMB filing to the stock exchange on Tuesday. It follows a relaxation in regulations to ease barriers to consolidation in the sector.

The agreement brings together TMB; ING Group N.V, a major shareholder in TMB; TBank; TBank’s major shareholders Thanachart Capital Plc (TCAP) and Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia.

TCAP’s shares yesterday jumped 5.63 per cent to close at Bt56.25 each on news of the deal, and TMB’s stock climbed 1.75 per cent to end at Bt2.32.

Chumpol Rimsakorn, deputy permanent secretary of the Ministry of Finance acting as a representative of the chairman of TMB board of directors, said the ministry is ready to increase capital in TMB in order to ensure the ministry will be a major shareholder in the combined entity. The ministry is the biggest shareholder in TMB.

The ministry had prepared some funds from its investment in the Vayupak Fund to finance the planned capital increase, meaning it would not need to draw on the national budget or from borrowings, Chumpol said.

As the major shareholder in TMB, the ministry considered the investment worthiness before giving its approval and believes the merger will strengthen the parties to it, he said.

“We’re confident that the merger plan will find success, thanks to its perfection, appropriateness, clear synergies and higher competition. The merged bank will see greater stability,” Chumpol said.

TMB chief executive officer Piti Tantakasem said that with the signing of the MOU, both banks will start due diligence, looking deeply into the books of each party over the next two to three months as the process moves towards finalisation.

If the final outcome can be reached in line with the aims of the MOU, TMB will call for an extraordinary meeting of its shareholders to vote on the proposed capital increase.

The Ministry of Finance and ING Group – as holders of the major stakes in the bank – will lead the efforts for securing more funds under the capital increase plan.

The deal is expected to close late this year.

After the merger, the merged bank will have three major shareholders – ING Group, the Ministry of Finance and TCAP. The allocation of the stakes will be determined after the due diligence.

To facilitate the deal, TMB would need to raise between B130 billion and Bt140 billion. About 70 about of this amount would be raised via equity financing and the remainder via debt financing.

The total equity financing would be split into two amounts: the first block of Bt50 billion to Bt55 billion would come from newly issued TMB shares allocated to TCAP and the Bank of Novia Scotia. It is expected that the newly issued TMB shares will be issued at 1.1 times TMB’s latest available book value adjusted for the capital raise and a mechanism to be set out in the definitive agreements.

The remaining Bt40 billion to Bt45 billion of new equity would be raised by TMB from existing shareholders with the support of its current major shareholders and may also include a public offering and/or private placements to existing or new investors.

“After the due diligence, we will prepare the integrated plan to make it ready in both management needs and technologies before making adjustments to the branches to fit under the new brand,” Chumpol said.

Customers of both banks can use services as normal in the meantime.

TMB has more than 400 branches with over 8,000 employees and 1.5 million customers that actively use mobile banking services. TBank has 512 branches with about 12,000 staff and 1 million customers using mobile banking services.

Once merged, the new bank will have about 10 million customers, and would retain the lead in auto hire purchase loans, take fourth place in residential loans and be No 5 in loans for small and medium-sized enterprises. The number of customers using the merged entity’s mobile banking services will be 2-3 million. Its assets are expected to be sixth biggest in the banking industry, estimated at Bt1.9 trillion.

TMB executive chairman Philippe G.J.E.O. Damas said that adjustments under the naming of the merged bank may take months or a year to complete, and it will be business as usual for employees and customers. No decision has been made on who become the chief executive.

This deal is a merger of both banks and there is no winner and loser under the deal, Damas said.

TCAP executive chairman Suphadej Poonpipat said that TCAP will be a major shareholder in the new bank with a stake of over 20 per cent and TBank will undertake a business restructuring in order for its assets to approach the size of TMB’s. TBank will divest its holdings in its subsidiaries, listed companies and non-listed companies.

“After this TCAP is ready to acquire TBank’s holdings in all subsidiaries to reduce TBank’s size and TCAP will remain listed on the stock exchange,” Suphadej said.

TBank’s subsidiaries are Thanachart Securities Public Company Limited, Thanachart Insurance Public Company Limited, TS Asset Management Co. Ltd and Ratchathani Leasing. It has investments in listed companies MBK Plc and Phatum Rice Mill & Granary Plc.

Praphan Anupongongarch, chief executive officer and president of TBank, said that branch locations may be adjusted for better services and the employees, according to the business plan, will likely be re-skilled for digital services.

Somjate Moosirilert, chief executive officer of TCAP, said that this merger plan has been supported by both banks’ shareholders and each party will complement the other.

Over the trial period, GET completed 2 million transactions covering 80 per cent of Bangkok and aims to cover the entire city soon.

Pinya Nittayakasetwat, co-founder and chief executive officer of GET, said the platform was designed as a lifestyle app and was among the first to introduce services such as GET Win (a motorcycle taxi booking service), GET Delivery (courier service) and GET Food for food deliveries.

He added that GET’s mission was the same as that of Go-Jek – using technology to create an impact on people.

Since being launched in Indonesia in 2015, the Go-Jek app has been downloaded more than 130 million times, has over 1.3 million drivers and over 400,000 small- and medium-enterprises (SMEs) have joined the platform. Go-Jek offers 19 services, ranging from transport, food delivery, grocery shopping and massage to housecleaning and logistics.

It also has e-money and loyalty programs.

Go-Jek’s motorcycle-taxi hailing service app is widely used in Vietnam and Singapore while its e-wallet app is popular in the Philippines. Go-Jek motorcycle-taxi hailing service is not available in the Philippines

“We aim to create a similar impact here in Thailand,” Pinya said.

GET is funded by Go-Jek with an undisclosed amount of investment.

“We are a Thai brand with local insight, world-class technology and social impact. We spent 2018 to study and understand motorcycle drivers, and aim to have an impact in terms of price, service and ease of use. We also aim to boost jobs and income for drivers, giving them life security and building a strong community. For SMEs, we aim to increase their transactions, expand the consumer base and educate them on e-business,” he added.

In the near future, GET plans to launch a wallet service, including wallets for drivers and users, as well as a digital payment platform, Pinya said, adding that motorcycle drivers can get a job with GET within an hour.

Pinya went on to say that he initially wanted to build a small start-up locally, but when he met Go-Jek creators in Indonesia, he realised that they had the same mission – hence the collaboration.

Nadiem Makarim, Go-Jek’s founder and group CEO, said the collaboration was good because people in Thailand and Indonesia had similar lifestyles – people in both countries used motorcycle taxis, both countries have a large demand for food-delivery services and both Indonesians and Thais have a similar mindset.

“We are serious in driving market growth and becoming a top choice for people. We hope to see success in Thailand in the next six months,” he said.

Pinya said the Go-Jek and GET architecture is designed to become a super app that offers people convenience in their daily lives, adding that over 10,000 motorcycle drivers have registered with GET so far.

“We will work with the authorities to make the services offered more efficient. We have been negotiating with state authorities to make GET legal here,” he said. “In Thailand, market penetration of ride-hailing services is in single digits. It is still a blue ocean, even though there are some competitors. We want to expand our ride-hailing service across Thailand and make life easier for people.”

The SET-listed private power producer’s earnings in the year to December 2018 were largely in line with projections as incremental revenues, brought by a 26 per cent growth in total installed capacity, successfully came on line within schedules.

Lower financial costs resulted from the issuance of Bt6.7 billion project-based bonds in May, Bt9.7 billion corporate debentures in October and B Grimm’s maiden green debentures worth Bt5 billion in December 2018. This was Thailand first green bond that was certified by Climate Bonds Initiative and received the Most Innovative Bond Deal award from the Thai Bond Market Association last week.

B Grimm’s revenues for 2018 showed a 16.2 per cent from the previous year to Bt36.6 billion. The company’s CEO and president, Preeyanart Soontornwata said the 2018 performance reflects the company’s determination to execute business as planned.

The year 2018 saw three co-generation projects namely ABPR3, ABPR4 and ABPR5, while seven ground-mounted solar-power facilities for government agencies and cooperatives were successfully brought on, all in all offering a combined installed capacity of 430MW.

Preeyanart, however, is bullish about B Grimm’s 2019 financial performance upon an expected 34-per-cent surge in its installed capacity. If it is synchronised, it can ensure a hefty revenue growth for the year.

Four generation projects are due to be completed this year with a combined capacity of 697MW. Two of them are the 420-MW DTE 1&2 and the 257-MW Phu Yen TTP, both solar-power plants in Vietnam scheduled for commercial start-up in June. One of these is Asean’s largest solar farm project, which is currently under development.

The other two, the 15-MW Nam Che hydropower power and the 5-MW industrial waste-to-energy facility are slated to commence commercial operation in the first half of 2019 and the yearend, respectively.

B Grimm’s most recent completed deal to acquire the Glow SPP1 co-generation asset in Map Ta Phut, with the expected approval from the regulator by the first quarter of 2019, will create the company’s competitive advantage in this high demand area. If this is included, B Grimm’s portfolio would have a total installed capacity of 3,250MW in 2022.

B Grimm is aggressively exploring new business opportunity particularly in the Asian region in consistence with the company’s goal to raise its capacity portfolio to 5,000MW by 2022.

On its radar screen are renewable energy ventures in South Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and hydropower scheme in Laos.

B Grimm declared a dividend of 17 satang per share for the second-half 2018 operation, payable to shareholders appeared in the registration as of March 14 to May 10.

Scania is introducing a new truck range, the result of ten years of development work and an investment of over Bt72 billion.

With the new range, Scania is extending its offering, thanks to its unique modular system, and now provides more performance steps both within the product and the services.

These solutions are tailor-made for each type of customer in order to maximize their profitability. The investment in a new factory in Bangkok sends a strong signal to the market, and makes Thailand a hub for Scania’s operations in Asia.

“It is undoubtedly the biggest investment in Scania’s 128-year history,” said Stefan Dorski, managing director of Scania Siam. “It is with great pride that my colleagues and I are now presenting the products and services that will bring Scania to new levels in Thailand and carry us far into the next decade.”

“Today Scania is not just launching a new truck range but also a unique, ingenious toolbox of sustainable solutions in the form of products and services with the aim to give our customers the necessary tools for achieving profitability in the one business that really matters namely their own.”

The press release said the most noticeable features are of course the completely new cabs, which are including ground-breaking new technologies and bringing the driver comfort to an entire new level. The visibility is improved through lower dashboards and moved driver position, and the aerodynamics together with the new powertrain provides a fuel consumption reduction of up to 5 per cent.

In terms of safety, Scania has significantly enhanced both the active and passive features such as the industry-first rollover curtain side airbags, to protect drivers against rollover accidents.

The maintenance contracts now come with flexible plans, where the optimal maintenance interval is calculated for each individual vehicle based on their actual operation, maximizing the uptime and increasing the customers’ profitability.

“Our new range of products and services redefines the term premium within the truck industry.” added Stefan Dorski.

A strong focus is being put on sustainability, with the introduction of the first Euro 6 heavy vehicle in Thailand. “This brand new gas engine, that has been purely developed for gas operation, will have a very good impact not only on the fuel cost, but also on the environment and the air quality”.

The New Truck Generation was introduced to the European market in August 2016, and has won a series of press tests including the international truck of the year award.

“It has been a pleasure to see the warm welcome it has received and to take part of all positive feedback from our customers worldwide. This has been reflected in our sales figures globally that are on record levels, proving that Scania has met the market demands in terms of technology, safety, driver environment, and most importantly, improving our customers total operating economy.”

Scania opens factory in Thailand

With a new assembly facility for trucks and bus chassis in the Bangkok Free Trade Zone, Scania is strengthening its presence in Thailand and Asia. The new factory, which also holds a manufacturing facility for truck cabs, is the biggest production investment Scania has done outside Europe and Latin America.

The new establishment is a fully cross-functional set-up, manned by people from Scania´s Production and Logistics, R&D, Purchasing as well as Sales and Marketing.

The total investment in the factory is Bt800 million. “With this new industrial establishment and with local suppliers, we can now build Scania trucks and buses according to global specifications, with Thai origin. It gives completely new prerequisites for our growth in the Asean Free Trade Area,” says Gustaf Sundell, Managing Director for Scania Group Thailand.

“By increasing our local presence we are now able to quickly respond to the customers„ demands, and make sure that we provide the best transport solution for each customer,” he continued. In addition, a regional headquarter has been established in Thailand, to support Scania´s distributors in Asia and Oceania in developing business in their markets, according to its press statement.