Photo credit: AOne

A Class Act

• A chemistry tutor struggled to find students — so he built his own platform to link students with tutors. Today, 500-backed AOne serves over 2,300 centers and branches across 5 countries in Southeast Asia.
• Founder & CEO Dr. Darren Gouk pivoted to a B2B SaaS model after realizing centers didn’t need more leads — they needed help managing operations. So, AOne digitized tasks such as student enrollment, class scheduling, attendance tracking, and more, with managing payments being the key feature for their customer’s businesses.
• Beyond education centers, AOne offers a free mobile app for parents to stay on top of multiple class schedules, fees, and activities across different AOne-powered centers.
• The team processes over US$64M in annual gross transaction volume, with their revenue in regional markets growing 2x to 8x year-over-year.
• Darren revealed that AOne is on track for profitability next year, and has set its sights on becoming an 8-figure business within the next 2–3 years.
• By 2027, they aim to serve 5,000–7,000 centers and evolve into an ‘everyday app’ by integrating more parent-facing features, and building a regional edtech ecosystem. To fuel their growth, they’re now seeking strategic investors with regional reach.
• Listen to the full interview on BFM 89.9.