Real-world experience starts in school

• A collaboration between the University of Melbourne and Buka Australia, 500-backed Bukalapak’s first international technology hub, will benefit information technology and engineering students at the institution.
• The five-year partnership will upskill students in entrepreneurship as well as research and development via activities such as guest lectures and sponsorships.
• “The company’s evolution and success show just how e-commerce can transform lives through technology, and the MOU offers a wonderful opportunity for our students to learn from Bukalapak’s on-the-ground expertise and entrepreneurship – and our students will take those skills with them into industry once they graduate,” the University said.
• Buka Australia also plans to expand the workforce at the hub by hiring 100 new employees in the next three to four years.
• CEO Willix Halim said that additional team members are needed in the company’s product, technology, data, and design roles.
• Read the full statement here.

Staying insured & organized has never been easier (and fun!)

• If you, like many others, have different policies from different insurance providers, then you’ll understand the importance – and challenge – of keeping them organized and up-to-date.
• This challenge motivated Val Yap to set up 500-backed insurtech startup PolicyPal, which enables users to buy, manage, and claim policies across various insurance providers from a single platform.
• Leveraging on its B2B2C model, the startup combines the expertise of insurers with its own technology to improve customer experience.
• According to Val, the app has helped customers to track and manage over $2 billion worth of insurance coverage. “It uses gamification to incentivize users into starting their financial learning journey, allowing users to play games or complete financial quizzes to earn credits that can be converted into rewards or cash,” she added.
• Learn more from Val in this interview.

Solving a problem that affects rural & urban dwellers

• Despite extensive infrastructure and advances in technology, suboptimal connectivity continues to plague both rural areas and densely populated cities.
• This spurred Rohit Jha into investigating what is really wrong with internet distribution in the world, which led him to co-founding 500-backed Transcelestial with Dr. Mohammad Danesh. Together, they developed a cost-effective and space-saving wireless laser communication technology.
• Now, all that is needed is two Centauri devices, each the size of a shoebox, for connectivity to be available in a given area.
• “From spending months to years negotiating to pull fiber-optic cables, it can be done within a day. Costs that would usually be priced into what customers pay, such as digging the ground and getting land access rights, are no longer part of the picture,” explains Rohit Jha, CEO & Co-founder of Transcelestial.
• He estimates that more than 20% of the cost to roll out a network — whether it is 4G or 5G, home or office broadband — comes down to the cost of installing fiber cables.
• Read the full feature story in The Edge Markets.