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[New Zealand 뉴질랜드] Kiwi tech company Kami wants to be a world leader in productivity

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2023.01.03 00:20:14

Kiwi ed-tech company Kami went from disrupting classrooms to becoming a necessity for teachers when Covid forced schools to go online. Now the company is working towards becoming the world's most productive company


An Auckland-based software company was started by a group of university friends in 2013 to take on technology's biggest competitor in the classroom: the pen and paper.


Kami, meaning paper in Japanese, has been growing every month since the pandemic.


It is a software company that offers cloud-based tools allowing teachers and students to annotate with text and video tutorials, edit and collaborate on digital documents.


It was co-founded by Hengjie Wang, Jordan Thoms and Alliv Samson in their final year at university to compete for $100,000 seed funding from the University of Auckland's centre for innovation and entrepreneurship programme. While they didn't win, the trio were able to get their mentor during the programme, ICT and business veteran Bob Drummond, on board as chairman to guide their growth.


Wang says last year was Kami's busiest year, with its user base growing from 6 million at the beginning of last year, to more than 26 million. The Kiwi software is being used in thousands of schools across 180 countries, quickly becoming a favourite particularly in the United States.


The company tripled its team to 50 employees last year just to keep up with its exponential growth.


Wang says the company, which set out to make classrooms more productive, has itself got the highest productivity levels in the country, almost on par with behemoths like Twitter and Netflix that generate about US$1.8 million revenue per employee.


According to a 2018 Technology Investment Network report, the average revenue generated by a full time tech worker in New Zealand was $245,000.


But Wang claims Kami’s employees generated four times that, about $980,000 per employee. Significantly above New Zealand’s overall GDP per capita of $64,000 for 2020.


The average salary for workers in New Zealand’s 200 largest tech export companies, including Kami, was about $82,000 last year, according to Technology Investment Network. The national median income is about $52,000.


How does Kami manage to stay so productive?


Wang says the cloud-based company has automated as many manual tasks as possible to make working as seamless as possible, especially as it has employees around the world.


“To improve productivity we don't just focus on working really long hours, that's not viable long term. We're fully cloud-based, have flexible working arrangements, we invest in our teams' skillset."


“We have catered team lunches to help staff focus on work and not worry about what they need to pack for lunch.”


“Luckily because we're based in Auckland, which is so multicultural, we've been able to attract diverse staff and that's helped us a lot in entering new markets globally."

– Hengjie Wang, Kami


The Productivity Commission's recent report found the productivity of New Zealand’s top firms lags, on average, up to 45 per cent behind that of high-performing small advanced economies in Europe.


Wang says he wants Kami to be world leaders in productivity. "We try really hard to be an attractive workplace.


“We pay competitive rates, and ensure that our staff are remunerated fairly. The living wage is the company's minimum wage which improves every year. Workers are also offered stock options in the company."


The company’s mission is to grow its user base to 1 billion.


“With such a big mission it makes sense to make sure our staff are well looked after and have all the resources available to do their best work,” Wang says.


Kami often hosts offsite work retreats, this month it was a three day all paid trip for employees to Queenstown. It also offers mental health days and pays for employees’ training programmes that are unrelated to work.


Wang reckons Kami's diverse staff have been a key driver in the company’s success, employing people aged from 20 to 60 years, who speak more than 30 languages.


“Luckily because we're based in Auckland, which is so multicultural, we've been able to attract diverse staff and that's helped us a lot in entering new markets globally."


The ongoing pandemic is likely to only boost Kami’s growth. Kami raised $2m in a seed round in 2019 that valued it at $19m.


"We're doing pretty well now, we're cashflow positive, have cash reserves."


Wang says before Covid, New Zealand schools were miles behind others overseas.


He says schools here weren’t as mature when it came to integrating technology into the classroom.


For instance, when it was starting out, Kami had greater uptake in North America because schools there were using online classrooms at primary and high school levels.


Covid, Wang says, changed that.


“There's more investment in infrastructure to support technology, there are bring your own device programmes, and Chromebooks becoming part of your stationery.”


Last year Acer, which makes the Chromebooks most commonly used by students, had its best year ever. It sold more than 30 million laptops globally, according to research firms Gartner and Canalys.


And it’s a trend that’s not slowing down with 12 million Chromebooks selling in the first three months of this year.


Naturally, this all looks very promising for Kami, Wang says. “There is huge growth in such a narrowly defined market.”


Wang says the country's future in productivity lies with growing our tech sector.


He says our declining rate of interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects among students is concerning.


Last year scores for New Zealand nine and 13-year-olds fell in maths and science in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. The study showed the students performed worst in algebra and chemistry questions, and best at data and probability, and earth science.


Wang says it's more important now than ever to bolster support in those sectors if we want a future where New Zealand could lead the world in productivity.


Please check the link below for more details;


https://www.newsroom.co.nz/kami-aims-to-be-nzs-most-productive-company

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