My Journey From FinTech to EdTech in Asia

If someone told you that a successful sales-focused equities trader at JP Morgan left this position to become a managing partner at a Hong Kong cryptocurrency exchange platform, you’d think he’s crazy. Who would trade such a steady career at a financial behemoth for an adventurous undertaking in the frontline of financial decentralization and daring cryptocurrency trading and investments?

Now, if you learned that this same person had also jumped into starting an edtech business aimed at re-connecting Hong Kong’s education ecosystem, then you’d likely be speechless. Who does that, anyway?

Well, I can say that, in a very resumed way, that’s my story. Just as I saw inefficiencies in the financial world caused by centralization and old transactional models that led me to join a FinTech venture, I also saw other inefficiencies in the education ecosystem in Asia—more particularly in Hong Kong—that made me want to solve them.

You see, unlike what happens in the financial world, where solutions aren’t great because centralization weighs on the world’s complex financial structure, in Asia’s education ecosystem things aren’t great either, but because they’re lacking integration. And that’s where EngagePlus comes into play.

Think about it. In Hong Kong alone there are over 1000 Primary and Secondary schools and of 6200 tutorial schools in Hong Kong—the latter having a recognized paramount importance in the system. Moreover, these impressive numbers do not account for activity-based learning centers, such as music or sports-learning centers. Yet, in this complex circle there is a startling disconnect that keeps excellence from being achieved. Students, parents, tutors, teachers and learning centers all end up interacting with each other but in a fragmented way.

That’s why I created EngagePlus as the centralized ecosystem that aims to connect parents, students, teachers, private education centres and schools in a way that connects the dots. Efficiency leads to a better education and improved teaching and learning results for every party involved, so what EngagePlus has to offer goes beyond the bottom line.

Ultimately, if booking lessons, checking attendances, making and receiving lesson payments, keeping balances in order, and making learning experiences more engaging and effective are all integrated into one single system, then we’ll not just accomplish better figures. We’ll accomplish better educated minds, better motivated teachers and students, better satisfied parents, and better oiled and sophisticated learning centers.

This is the win-win edtech story that I’ve been successfully working on for the last 3 years, with a 300% yearly growth rate and many happy users… so that’s how I left one of the world’s greatest banks to become an edtech problem-solver trying to create one of the world’s greatest and most efficient education ecosystems.