Study Abroad EdTech ApplyBoard Triples Valuation To $3.2 Billion With $300 Million Fundraise
College is hard. But for international students, the process of applying to study abroad is often even harder. That’s why ApplyBoard—which is free to students and serves as the one-stop-shop for foreign applicants pursuing higher education in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada—has doubled its headcount in under a year by streamlining visa, financial aid and entry exam and essay requirements on its platform.
Today the Ontario, Canada-based company confirmed it raised a $300 million Series D at a $3.2 billion post-money valuation. The round was led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board and existing investors Fidelity Management & Research, Harmonic, Index Ventures, Garage Capital and Blue Cloud Ventures, and brings the company’s total funding to $475 million.
“We started this company because we believe education is a right, not a privilege,” says Martin Basiri, ApplyBoard’s CEO and cofounder. “I’m so excited because we started this company with that mission…now, my brothers and I can achieve our dream of educating people.”
Basiri and his brothers have first-hand experience with the pain of studying abroad. Originally from Iran, Martin Basiri and his brothers Massi and Meti wanted to do their engineering masters’ in Canada. Ultimately they ended up at the University of Waterloo, but in the process they struggled with visa, financial aid and other requirements, which they estimate took each of them hundreds of hours.
“Our company happened accidentally,” Martin Basiri told Forbes when ApplyBoard raised a $55 million Series C Extension. “Meti, Massi and I came to Canada 10 years ago and in the process we figured out how hard the process is. From day one, we knew this is such a big problem that if our idea works it would be an extremely big company.”
In 2015, the brothers quit their jobs to build the Common Application equivalent for international students. Though they weren’t precisely sure how the platform would work, they knew it would never directly charge students. On ApplyBoard’s website today, students from over 125 countries can fill in their credentials, interests and financial background and its AI pairs them with 1,500-plus undergraduate and graduate institutions like the University of Delaware, University of Waterloo and University of Liverpool. Similar to the Common App, students submit a universal ApplyBoard application—complete with essays, tests and demographics—to perspective schools. After a student is accepted to an ApplyBoard school, they can work with the company’s visa team for guidance through that process—all at no cost beyond standard application fees paid to institutions. (It said fees collected amounted to $300 million in 2019.)
ApplyBoard, which is considered one of Canada’s fastest growing companies has served over 200,000 students so far. While the company would not disclose its revenue, it makes money by charging universities a percentage of tuition for enrolled students. Despite the fact that international student recruitment decreased by 75% with Covid-19, ApplyBoard has grown its revenue by 400% from 2020 as the company says it became the “Zoom” for virtual international college recruitment. The company currently employs over 1,000 people across 25 countries, and it is looking to hire 250 additional employees right now.
“We are headed towards a future where transnational education plays an increasingly important role in higher education,” says Rick Prostko, managing director of the Teachers’ Innovation Platform at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, which led ApplyBoard’s latest funding round. “The need to streamline these interactions with technology onto a single platform has never been greater.”
The opportunity to bolster international education is what drives Martin Basiri. With the new funding, he says the company plans to develop new products and advance existing ones like ApplyProof, which authenticates documents including English test scores and acceptance offers for the benefit of government officials and admissions officers. “Peace goes away when people don’t know about each other,” he says. “When people study together, they grow up together—and have heart for each other. If they go back to their home country, there’s a permanent link between the countries that not only promotes prosperity, but peace in the world.”
Right now, students can only use ApplyBoard to apply to study in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and Canada. In the coming months, ApplyBoard aims to add more schools in these four countries to the platform.
“The University of Waterloo sees ApplyBoard as a natural partner because of the unique value it brings to the table for international student recruitment, and, at the same time, exhibits the best of the entrepreneurial spirit our institution is known for,” says Feridun Hamdullahpur, president and vice chancellor at the University of Waterloo, which has been using ApplyBoard to enroll international students for more than five years. “We couldn’t be more excited for the impact they bring to the post-secondary education sector.”
