International Expansion of Online Education Platforms: Establishing an Asia-Pacific HQ in Singapore and Multi-Country Operations

Challenges Faced

Customers must establish entities in multiple countries to address challenges such as cross-border payments, data compliance, and intellectual property protection. Key hurdles include: varying regulatory requirements for online education across countries, with some mandating educational licenses; cross-border payments involving multi-currency settlements and foreign exchange controls; data compliance requiring adherence to both China's Personal Information Protection Law and the EU GDPR; and the need to register and protect intellectual property separately in each jurisdiction.

Solutions

Tiger International has designed an international architecture for its clients with Singapore as the APAC headquarters. Regarding headquarters setup, we assisted clients in incorporating a holding company in Singapore to serve as the management hub for APAC operations. We supported clients in obtaining Singapore's Payment Institution (MPI) license, laying the foundation for cross-border payment services. Additionally, we helped clients open multi-currency accounts at DBS Bank in Singapore, enabling settlements in USD, SGD, CNY, and other currencies. For market expansion, we established subsidiaries sequentially in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In Malaysia, we assisted clients in securing educational qualifications; in Thailand, we facilitated the acquisition of foreign business licenses; and in Indonesia, we supported PMA registration and education department filings. On data compliance, we helped clients build data protection systems aligned with local regulations. We specifically designed data localization solutions by deploying local servers in each country to ensure user data meets storage requirements. We also assisted in drafting privacy policies and terms of service that comply with applicable laws across all jurisdictions. In intellectual property protection, we guided clients through trademark and copyright registrations in each country to safeguard core course content and brand assets. We implemented content licensing mechanisms to enable local subsidiaries to legally utilize the headquarters' course materials.

Achieve Results

• Completed Series C funding of $5000 million USD, with investors including internationally renowned education funds.
• Users across 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, with over 100K overseas users
• Established a multilingual operations team covering English, Malay, Thai, and Indonesian.
• Monthly active user growth of 400%, with overseas revenue accounting for 30%
• Hold educational licenses in Malaysia and Thailand; operate compliantly with no major risks.