Founder Spotlight: An ecosystem boost from Singapore to get Arta Finance and Spark Education started

• Despite operating in different industries, founders Caesar Sengupta of Arta Finance and Mark Luo of Spark Education found Singapore’s openness to innovation, talent density and market access the perfect blend for transforming ideas into global businesses
• Both companies are well plugged into Singapore’s startup ecosystem, working closely with investors, the government and market partners to scale quickly
• Arta and Spark have predominantly Singaporean teams managing key functions that have been essential to international growth – including senior engineers and key leadership roles at Arta, as well as Singaporeans in pedagogy research, sales, marketing and operations at Spark

In the dynamic realm of entrepreneurship, two distinct companies often reveal surprising parallels. Such is the case with Spark Education and Arta Finance. The founders of both companies identified market gaps through personal pain points and launched innovative solutions that now address the same needs for countless others. Despite operating in different spheres — education and finance, respectively — both companies have thrived by leveraging a confluence of factors unique to Singapore: its strategic location, business-friendly policies, and a highly skilled cosmopolitan talent pool.

Serial entrepreneur Mark Luo served as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for seven years at Ganji.com, a leading online classified ads platform in China, before starting a successful import/export and kids’ toy rental company. Despite his career success, the desire to provide better learning opportunities for children never left him. Mark launched Spark Education in 2017 alongside co-founder Xiaonan Wang, with the ambition to deliver a quality, research-based curriculum to children through interactive, technology-enabled education.

Spark’s immersive online classroom experience proved to be immensely popular with parents, students and teachers alike. Over the next five years, Spark experienced rapid success in China. And as the nation shifted to online education during the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for its platform skyrocketed. 

Mark established Spark’s headquarters in Singapore in 2021 with the ambition to expand globally. To date, Spark has reached nearly 700,000 students worldwide with courses like Spark Math, Spark Chinese, and Spark Coding. The EduTech startup also has offices in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Vietnam.

For Caesar Sengupta of Arta Finance, he was bitten by the entrepreneurship bug during his time at Google, where he also met key members of what would become Arta’s founding team. While working on various financial products, including Google Pay, they arrived at a mutual discovery: there was a significant gap in wealth services that allowed working professionals to protect and grow their wealth, as these services were often reserved for the ultra-wealthy. 

“We saw a huge global opportunity to serve several hundred million people in need of personalised wealth services operating at the same level if they were to go to a private bank or family office. The timing was also right, as technology had advanced enough to enable us to scale these wealth services effectively.” 

Arta Finance provides scalable wealth management services through an AI-powered digital platform, with the goal of democratising financial management and empowering investors to increase their assets. The platform helps investors grow their assets by automating investments in public markets, and enables clients to invest in alternative assets, such as private equity, and private real estate ventures – usually reserved for ultra high net worth individuals - at much more approachable amounts.
 

A Business-Friendly Innovation Ecosystem and Global Talent Hub
 

For both founders, choosing to establish their headquarters in Singapore was a strategic decision due to the nation’s pro-business and unique innovative environment, as well as its skilled talent pool. 

“Singapore is cultivating a unique and powerful ecosystem, home to a diverse network of innovators, professionals, and businesses from around the world,” says Caesar. “The quality of local tech talent and engineering talent here is unrivalled. Singaporeans are not only technically skilled but are inherently global thinkers with mature business acumen. Many have experience creating global infrastructure from their time in major companies – an invaluable asset as we continue to grow and target international audiences.” 

Caesar also credits programmes like Startup SG, a network of over 5,000 startups, 500 investors and over 200 incubators and accelerators, that have helped Arta participate in Singapore’s thriving startup ecosystem. 

Over 70 per cent of Arta’s 50+ full-time staff are Singaporeans, the majority of which comprise senior engineers with prior experience in large tech companies. Singaporeans hold key leadership positions within the FinTech startup, including its engineering team lead and its go-to-market (GTM) team lead. It is also growing its product development and AI teams here. 

Arta’s Country Manager for Singapore, Amanda Ong, echoed the calibre of talent she works with. “The level of talent at Arta is extremely high. Many of my colleagues have come from leading technology and financial services firms with deep expertise in their respective domains. I think it says a lot about the firm that they’ve been able to attract this level of talent and I’m grateful to be in an environment where I can work and learn from the best.”

Similarly, Spark’s Mark Luo highlights Singapore’s business-friendly environment within the education sector as the catalyst for his startup’s exponential growth. Spark also tapped Singapore’s qualified, English-speaking teachers trained in Singapore Mathematics – a factor that Mark believes as critical to their early business building stage. 

“What initially captivated us was Singapore’s reputation as a global educational leader, particularly in Mathematics,” shares Mark. “However, as we continued to develop our platform and teams here, we realised there was so much more to the EduTech ecosystem that we could harness for our growth.” 

Spark participated in Singapore’s first EduTech accelerator EduSpaze, which helps early-stage startups strengthen their products and collaborate with stakeholders in education. The founding team gained a better understanding of Singapore’s education system and developed market-ready products through EduSpaze, which greatly enhanced Spark Math programmes for their international student base. Additionally, the founding team was connected to local education solutions provider Marshall Cavendish Education, leading to a partnership in developing digital international editions of Spark’s teaching materials. 

Over 90 per cent of Spark’s sizable Singapore-based team are Singaporeans dedicated to pedagogy research, sales, marketing and operations, and has been crucial to its international growth. 

Over 90 per cent of Spark’s sizable Singapore-based team are Singaporeans dedicated to pedagogy research, sales, marketing and operations, and has been crucial to its international growth. 

“Working at Spark has been immensely fulfilling because of the opportunity to lead and influence transformative changes in how students learn. In my role, I am able to be a part of EduTech’s dynamic landscape and gain global leadership experience. It is a privilege that I deeply value and one that might not be possible in a more local organisation,” shares Peter.
 

For Arta Finance’s Caesar and Spark Education’s Mark, choosing to build from Singapore also goes beyond the technical aspects of business-friendly policies and regulations.

"It's very simple, really. If we want to continue to make learning fun for kids of today and tomorrow, we need to prioritise technology in the education sector. Singapore is a great place to achieve this goal, as it is home to the best talent that can marry tech and quality education,” concludes Mark.

Caesar agrees, stating that the sheer liveability of Singapore has been alluring for his founding team. “The nation fosters business success and personal well-being, making it more than an innovation hub. Moreover, its high standard of living, exceptional healthcare and top-tier education makes it a place where people choose to settle. Some of my co-founders moved to Singapore when we were still at Google, planning to stay only for a couple of years, but ten years later, they are still here. This tells us something about how good the quality of life in Singapore is - it's a place where people choose to stay, set down roots, and build their lives.”

This article is part of a series spotlighting serial entrepreneurs from around the world building new ventures from Singapore.