Malaysia’s QuickSchools building momentum in the US

  • App store, outbound sales, mature product provide strong platform
  • Looking for next round of investors in 2014 with US$13m valuation
Malaysia’s QuickSchools building momentum in the US

THE wind is certainly in the sails of QuickSchools.com, probably the only Malaysian startup that has relocated to the United States because that’s where it is seeing the most traction for its online school management system.
 
Focusing on schools with 300 and fewer students, it has hundreds of schools paying a monthly fee with tens of thousands of teachers and administrators using its product.
 
Initially based in Malaysia, the founders took the bold step to move to San Francisco in 2011 and establish Quickschools, Inc. The move has been a fruitful one, with 2013 shaping up to be their best year.
 
“We have seen months with double and even triple-digit growth compared with the same period last year,” said founders Aris Samad and Azreen Latiff during a recent Skype interview with Digital News Asia (DNA).
 
Azreen declared that the company is in the best shape it has ever been in, powered by a mature product that has been finessed and polished, with new enhancements in the pipeline plus their move into outbound sales showing promising results.
 
Before this, QuickSchools.com had relied exclusively on online channels to push sales.
 
They also credit the launch of their app store, with an initial seven apps they built themselves, with the sales spike.
 
“When we spoke to you last year it was an idea we had, but now we have launched it and feel it is a true differentiator for us, with none of our top competitors having it,” Aris said.
 
Claiming that the response has been “very positive,” they are opening it up to external developers this month and expect the schools that are already using their product to be the first wave of developers, as they know best what they need exactly.
 Malaysia’s QuickSchools building momentum in the US
Taking all this into consideration, QuickSchools.com expects to be profitable in mid-2014, but the duo declined to share current revenue figures.
 
With momentum building, they feel the time is right to start reaching out and connecting with potential investors and collaborators.
 
“We expect to double our customer base next year and feel we have an exciting story that enhances our appeal. This will represent a serious opportunity for bigger investors to come in and accelerate our growth,” said Azreen (pic).
 
Having said that though, they are also “definitely open to investors from Malaysia coming in, if it makes sense. You never know,” he added.
 
In terms of valuation, they are looking at US$13 million, but only next year when they hit some of their internal revenue milestones.
 
If that sounds expensive, the dynamic duo actually feels that they have “barely scratched the surface of what we are doing. We need to win the [US] market very convincingly,” said Azreen.
 
Next page: Cautious strategy gives them strong base to build out from 

 
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