News & Events

Today, the China Canada Angel Alliance (“CCAA” for short), an angel round investment enterprise managed by Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, an online platform called ApplyBoard, which is committed to “providing the best education for students around the world”, announced the completion of round C financing of 100 million Canadian dollars (72 million US dollars), becoming the first unicorn project invested by CCAA in North America with a valuation growth of more than 100 times. Since its establishment in 2015, ApplyBoard has grown into a unicorn with a valuation of 2 billion Canadian dollars (1.4 billion US dollars). It took only five years for ApplyBoard to become the first fastest growing technology company in Canada by Deloitte in 2019.

This round of financing is led by Drive Capital, and Fidelity invests in ULC, Canada Commercial Development Bank and existing investors including Anthos Capital, Artiman Ventures, Garage Capital, Plug and Play Technology Center and Candou Ventures.

The App Board plans to use the current round of financing of $100 million in scientific and technological innovation, cooperation with universities in new destination countries, and better services for more students and partners worldwide.

The application board, founded in 2015 by co founders Martin, Matty and Massi, is an artificial intelligence platform to help international students apply for international education, providing one-stop application services for international students who apply to study abroad. In the past few years, the company has maintained continuous growth. In 2019, the application board was selected by Deloitte (Deloitte) as the fastest growing technology company in Canada.

ApplyBoard has brought unprecedented innovation to international education: its online platform provides comprehensive, one-stop solutions for students, schools and partners, greatly simplifying the application process. Its artificial intelligence algorithm will help applicants to match the best universities and projects for studying abroad in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom according to key conditions such as students’ educational background, learning plans and financial status. By joining the platform, the school benefits from improving its brand influence globally, and enriches the diversity of the campus by recruiting students from all over the world who meet the admission requirements online.

Martin Basiri, co-founder and CEO of ApplyBoard, said: “Education has the power to change life, but for many students, the application process for studying abroad is still very difficult. ApplyBoard was founded to ensure that every student has the opportunity to receive education.”

The picture shows that in 2015, Martin, co-founder of ApplyBoard, participated in CAMP Sino Canada Joint Venture CAMP

In 2015, ApplyBoard was selected into the Sino Canada Joint Venture Camp of Zhongguancun Dahe Capital CAMP, and won the angel round investment of the Sino Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA) managed by Zhongguancun Dahe Capital.

Wang Tong, founding partner of Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, said: When investing in ApplyBoard in 2015, the company had only four users. Today, ApplyBoard has established cooperative relationships with more than 1200 educational institutions, helping more than 100000 students complete their educational journey. At the same time, as a typical representative of overseas projects related to the Chinese market invested by CCAA, ApplyBoard, with the help of Zhongguancun Dahe Capital in the Chinese market, has successfully entered Beijing, Shanghai, Xi’an and other cities, becoming a driver of profound changes in the study abroad industry.

Nick Solaro, partner of Drive Capital, the leading investor in this round, said: “We are very happy to work with Martin and his team, because we believe that ApplyBoard is making the world a better place, because they have fundamentally changed the way global students get education.”

It only took five years for ApplyBoard to grow into a unicorn with a valuation of 2 billion Canadian dollars ($1.4 billion) from its establishment in 2015. In 2016, ApplyBoard had only 16 employees. Up to now, ApplyBoard has more than 400 employees in 20 countries, covering Kitchener, Beijing, Nepal, Vietnam, the Philippines and India. With more than 4000 partners around the world, it has cooperated with more than 1200 cooperative schools, including but not limited to universities, colleges, public education bureaus (K-12) and language schools in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.