Schoolmates Adam Khoo and Patrick Cheo founded Adam Khoo Learning Technologies Group (AKLTG) in 2002 with just $8,000 in seed capital as a modest training company. By 2024, the group had expanded to include financial education in its portfolio, reporting revenue of approximately $25 million.
Aktivate, formerly known as Adam Khoo Youth Division, is the group’s youth education brand, conducting programmes for MOE schools and the public, focusing on leadership, critical and design thinking, as well as future-ready digital skills. Growth Catalyst, its business coaching and consultancy arm, was launched in 2012. Finally, Piranha Profits, launched in 2017, is a global online school for financial education.
“We basically had this dream to transform lives through education,” says Cheo, the group’s CEO. “We believe that education is a way to inspire people to become a better version of themselves. So whether they attend our kids programme or our corporate training or financial education programmes, they have an enlightenment of what they need to do for themselves to self-improve.”
The company’s early years were shaped by its prominent co-founder, Khoo, whose reputation grew through word of mouth among young people who attended his programmes in the 2000s and 2010s. While Khoo drives the group’s creativity, Cheo works behind the scenes, managing operations, finance, people and strategy. “Adam is the educator and content creator. I’m the operator. He does his thing, I do mine. That’s why we’ve worked together for over 20 years without a single argument,” says Cheo.
The pair’s partnership began during their time at the National University of Singapore (NUS), where they started a mobile disco business. Khoo was the DJ, while Cheo handled logistics. “We started when we were so young, and now I’m 51!” laughs Cheo.
That early split in responsibilities would later carry over into AKLTG. “We form a very good partnership and we have never disagreed,” he adds. ”Ever since our first business in NUS, we have never argued. Whenever we come to a point where we disagree, eventually we agree.
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The right move
Today, Cheo says the Piranha Profits brand accounts for about 80% of the group’s business. It operates through three segments: a subscription-based model where users can tune into monthly investing or trading ideas, on-demand video courses on stock investing, options trading and price action, and finally, a series of live ‘masterclasses’ — one of which is taught by the man himself, Khoo.
“We have customers from all over the world. Singapore is our biggest market, followed by the US, and then Malaysia is next in line. Fourth is Australia, then fifth is Canada,” says Cheo.
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“The philosophy hasn’t changed,” he says. “It’s still about mindset, discipline and learning how to apply knowledge. The only difference is that instead of teaching kids to believe in themselves, we’re teaching adults to believe they can manage their money and build wealth.”
Like many education providers, AKLTG’s traditional business took a hit when the Covid-19 pandemic shut down physical classes in 2020. Its popular youth camps and corporate workshops, as well as Piranha Profits’ master classes, came to an abrupt halt. Yet the crisis became a catalyst for opportunity.
“We had already started conducting online courses since 2017, so when Covid-19 hit, we were well-prepared to pivot fully online. We quickly adapted our physical classes for digital delivery — for example, running our classes on Zoom,” says Cheo. “But in the end, all the work paid off.”
The group’s shift to online financial education proved successful: net profit jumped 175% between 2019 and 2020, while revenue in 2021 surged to $31 million, its highest on record. Building on this momentum, 2025 marks another turning point. Early this year, Piranha Profits launched Stock Oracle™, an AI-aided web app that uses proprietary algorithms and FactSet data to rate and value US-listed companies.
The app is priced between US$218 ($280) and US$249 per year and has already attracted around 10,000 subscribers within months of its launch. Cheo’s target is ambitious: 100,000 subscribers within five to six years, which he says would generate approximately US$20 million in annual recurring revenue.
He says: “We are moving from education to basically financial technology (fintech) now. So from education tech (edutech) to fintech, that’s another big jump in our business model that has transformed everything.”
One of the app’s key features is OracleIQ™ — a proprietary stock analysis tool that summarises a company’s fundamentals into a simple, colour-coded graph, allowing users to quickly gauge a stock’s overall quality. Currently focused on the US market, Stock Oracle™ will soon expand to cover Singapore, the UK and, eventually, Hong Kong.
Tricks of the trade
Cheo has always been comfortable working behind the scenes, letting Khoo take the spotlight while he focuses on building the business infrastructure. Today, AKLTG employs around 50 staff in Singapore, all of whom are Singaporean. Half have been with the company for more than 10 years, and a quarter for over 15.
He says: “During Covid-19 we retained our staff by giving them more money so that they could support their families. So that’s the approach that I had during Covid.”
Succession is not a pressing concern, he adds, as he trusts the company’s managers to handle day-to-day operations. Furthermore, the shift towards scalable digital platforms like Stock Oracle™ means the group is less reliant on individual personalities or trainers. “The culture here is about empowerment,” says Cheo. “I don’t micromanage. I prefer after-action reviews, where we reflect on what worked, what didn’t and how to improve.”
This approach, he notes, has helped keep AKLTG’s staff attrition rate “very low”, which in turn has contributed to modest growth in operating expenses over the years. Coupled with yearly revenue increases of around 20% to 30%, leading to net profit growth of 30% to 50% and averaging $10 million each year since 2021, Cheo says he is “happy” with the group’s progress.
Should annual net profit hit $20 million consistently in the coming years, the group will consider an initial public offering (IPO), although the target listing market remains unknown.
For all the changes, Cheo insists that AKLTG’s identity remains consistent. He says: “Everything must stem from education, and the education must be authentic, and it must come from the heart. We’ve centred our products on the customer, to make sure that they eventually benefit, and that’s how we have been around for 23 years.”
He adds: “It’s also a lot of word of mouth. We have kids who have grown, who now attend our wealth and financial programmes — and if they have kids, their kids attend our youth programmes. It’s an evergreen cycle that is important in building a brand that has got us here.”
When asked about the challenges facing aspiring entrepreneurs today, Cheo — this year’s winner of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award in education services — highlights three necessary ingredients.
The first is branding. Cheo says: “You may have the best product in the world, but if you don’t have a good brand, people don’t know you, so you either exist or die.” The second issue that many new companies have is one of human resources. Knowing how to hire staff to build a business and retaining them afterwards is a skill that entrepreneurs don’t “think hard” about, says Cheo. “So now you may have the best product, you may have the best brand, but if you don’t have the people to run it [the business] for you, you also die.”
The CEO says the toughest challenge to overcome is managing cash flow. “This is really the bloodline for any company. You can have the best product, you can have good people running it, but if you are always running into cash flow issues, it will curtail your growth,” adds Cheo. “You focus on these three basic concepts of business, do it well, and the rest will fall in place.”
