IN 2017, when One on One Educational Services was facing financial challenges, the company’s founder and CEO, Ricardo Allen, turned to the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) for help.
He said that at the time “we were running out of money” and that he had made the difficult decision to close the physical office space and operate remotely.
The DBJ came to the rescue, providing Allen with financial support and guidance, allowing him to not only rebuild but also grow his business beyond Jamaica.
One on One now has contracts with clients throughout the Caribbean and in the United States.
Allen said that One on One was able to fund the development of software “that is now being used by the government of the Bahamas, the government of St Kitts, all these people. I just got my first contract outside of California, in the United States of America.”
One on One Educational Services is among a number of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) that have benefited from billions of dollars in financial support to improve and grow their operations through a range of products and services offered by DBJ.
As an innovative technology company established in 2013, One on One offers a range of digital education and training solutions.
The New Kingston-based company has created an award-winning online learning platform, with personalized courses for students, as well as corporations and governments throughout the Caribbean.
Customers benefit from e-learning courses, online training, instructional design services, and expert tutors and trainers. Some 400,000 students have been served through the online platform.
Allen said that DBJ has been with the company “every step of the way.”
He recalled that “when we started the business and launched the online learning platform, we felt we needed money. We raised money from the market and got investors, but it ran out quickly. With this great idea we went to the DBJ and they supported us [under] the Innovation Grant from New Ideas to Entrepreneurship (IGNITE) program.”
IGNITE enables Jamaican entrepreneurs, particularly MSMEs with innovative business ideas, to access grant funds to develop and market their products and services.
GUIDANCE NEEDED
Allen noted that once he received the DBJ grant, there was a team of people who provided him with the necessary guidance.
“When I sat down with DBJ in that boardroom, they had the ability to just sit back and listen to my crazy ideas, and their attitude was, ‘how can we help support?’ And so from day one, when we received the $2.5 million IGNITE grant, she did wonders for us.
“That allowed us to create a technology and a software or an online learning platform that we can now deliver to anyone, anywhere,” he said.
One on One has also received credit support through DBJ’s Credit Enhancement Facility.
This is a risk-sharing arrangement under which the bank provides partial guarantees to approved financial institutions to enable them to increase lending to MSMEs.
With the onset of COVID-19 and students studying online, Allen again approached DBJ for help in developing an innovative product, which will bring Internet access to people, particularly those in remote rural areas.
“So we created this thing called Internet-in-a-Box. It’s really a small device, and what we do is we download a version of the Internet onto this device and we deploy it in rural Jamaica,” Allen explained.
“I grew up in Jackson Town, Trelawny, and if you put that [device] in Jackson Town, students gathered around her, just as they do on Wi-Fi. They can consume any Internet-based resource on that device, without the need for the Internet,” he further explained.
“We needed to bring that to market, and we went back to the DBJ and said we had an innovation and we need the funding to continue. They had the perfect opportunity, which is this innovation grant. [fund]and we request it,” he added.
Allen said the grant process was rigorous “because they[DBJ]they wanted to make sure that whatever they put their money into was something that would lead to nation building. So we agreed to the grant and now we are in the process of producing these devices that we are going to implement in Jamaica.”[DBJ)wantedtoensurethatwhatevertheyareputtingtheirmoneytowardsissomethingthatisgoingtoleadtonationbuildingSoweaccessedthegrantandwearenowintheprocessofproducingthesedevicesthatwe’regoingtodeployacrossJamaica”[DBJ)wantedtoensurethatwhatevertheyareputtingtheirmoneytowardsissomethingthatisgoingtoleadtonationbuildingSoweaccessedthegrantandwearenowintheprocessofproducingthesedevicesthatwe’regoingtodeployacrossJamaica”
For the innovation grant, the company had to provide proof that it was earning more than $75 million in revenue consistently over the last three years and also demonstrate that the product could be marketed.
“Our product is in the marketing process, so it is not yet ready for the market. It is something we are building. The product had to be needed by the market, and the DBJ looked at this, and the next thing they looked at was the quality of the team behind it. Could you deliver on this promise because a lot of us have ideas but we can’t deliver on that promise?
Meanwhile, the CEO of One on One said that he values not only the financial support provided by DBJ over the years, but also the mentorship and advice that have enabled his company to seize opportunities to grow.
He recalled that five years ago, when he made the decision to operate the business from his home, “the DBJ team came to my bungalow, sat in a corner and… fixed all the problems I had. They gave me all the solutions. They have never left me.”
“They have a team of people who are on your side to make sure it gets done and executed, plus they also connect you with their network of people and organizations to give you that support,” he said.
Allen noted that with DBJ’s assistance, One on One has become a truly regional company, noting that “90 percent of our clients are outside of Jamaica.”
“We couldn’t have done it without the vision, without the funding, the mentorship from DBJ,” he said.