The post COVID-19 period, namely from March onwards, has seen a massive re-allocation and indeed, migration by investors between the different sectors. The three big winners have so far been the miners, boosted by soaring precious metals prices, pharma stocks on COVID vaccine hopes, and perhaps best of all, tech stocks. Indeed, the stock market migration to technology has mirrored what has happened in real life with work from home meaning wall to wall online activity, adding to already burgeoning e-sports, social media, and entertainment.
Education And Career Planning
However, the space which may prove to be amongst the best in terms of what it offers the end user, and investors, is the area of education. The point was certainly underlined during lockdown with home schooling, and remote learning. However, the second part of the equation is the effect of the pandemic on the workplace. The jobs market will arguably never revert to pre-pandemic times, and in particular, career planning. One can only feel for those attempting to enter the jobs market for the first time post COVID-19, with all the difficulties and competition in the workplace.
Share Price Rise
What is therefore particularly compelling about education technology group Dev Clever (DEV), is that it embraced two of the most important areas of the pandemic environment – well before the big change came earlier this year. Clearly, the stock market has already appreciated this fact, given the sharp rise in Dev Clever shares in recent months. But it is perhaps the newsflow of just the past couple of weeks which has really been the standout, and sets the scene for a fresh re-rate in Q4 2020.
Lenovo And Veative
In particular, being partnered with the world’s leading hardware provider in schools – Lenovo, means that Dev Clever software is already embedded in its space. With its other partner Veative, it has a global partnership spanning curriculum aligned VR and WebXR modules. Veative provides the careers guidance part of the joint offering with Dev Clever, launchyourcareer.com being its flagship.
The SaaS Revolution
For those concerned about monetisation, there are solid aspects to address. Software as a service, or SaaS, has been something of a revolution in tech of late, essentially where users / organisations subscribe rather than buy a product outright. In addition, Dev Clever has just announced a $1.2m contract to undertake two COVID-19 impact assessments, both in the US and India. As we are becoming increasingly aware, where there is software there is big data, and where there is big data there are large monetisation opportunities.
India And China Markets
But the opportunity for Dev Clever, is not just to dominate key parts of the educational market, it is to dominate geographically as well. In particular, developing economies such as India and China, where the study and career ethic is strong, offer massive opportunity for the company to roll out and scale up its business model. India is currently in focus, given Veative’s presence in the country and the demographics and market there. For instance, 300 million students, 30% of whom are being educated privately. In addition, 90% of schools in India have no career guidance counsellor.
$1.2m Impact Assessment Deal
It is therefore evident that the opportunities for Dev Clever are growing rapidly, and even though the stock market has already backed the shares well, there are aspects which may still be underappreciated. The $1.2m impact assessment deal, and the latest 3 year partnership with Low6’s mobile quiz based pool betting platform shows that while the core of Dev Clever is in education, it has the know how to spread to diverse areas of new technology, such as Dev’s mobile contactless ordering and payment service – PubPal, and Engage gamification platform.
Significant Shareholder
From an investor’s perspective the situation appears solid as well. For instance, the company has already raised £2m of a proposed £10m subscription at 10p – some 10% above the present share price. Tech investor Asimilar (ASLR) already has 20 million shares in Dev Clever, and has warrants vesting at 25p. Therefore, a significant shareholder is looking for decent upside here, over and above the gains already witnessed so far this year.
Disclaimer
Zakmir.com is a purely journalistic website – Zak Mir is a member of the National Union of Journalists. There is no intention here of providing financial advice. It is recommended you seek an independent professional opinion before deciding whether or not to take any action with regard to anything written here.
