Canadian Edtech Startup ApplyBoard Raises $300 Mn In Series D Funding; To Expand India Footprint

Canadian edtech startup ApplyBoard has raised $300 Mn in Series D funding round, raising its valuation to $3.2 Bn.

The funding round was led by Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board via its Teachers Innovation Platform (TIP). The company’s existing investors such as Fidelity Management and Research Company, LLC, BDC, Index Ventures, Garage Capital and Blue Cloud Ventures also participated in the round. The company said that a significant part of new funding will be utilised to expand its operations and team in India.

According to Inc42 Plus’ data in 2020 alone, the edtech segment attracted $1.4 Bn funding.

The company was founded in 2015 by brothers Martin, Meti, and Massi Basiri. They were international students who came from Iran to Canada for their education and after seeing and experiencing the challenges of the application process they decided to start ApplyBoard to make it easy for others. ApplyBoard has raised $475 Mn till date.

 The company plans to invest a significant part of the funding to expand its footprint in the Indian edtech startup ecosystem. In the first five months of 2021, Indian edtech startups already raised $1.3 Bn representing a 2.9X hike from previous years’ $447 Mn in the same period. The segment was led by edtech giant BYJU’s that raised $460 Mn and became the second most valued startup in India.

This growth in the Indian edtech startup ecosystem, is incentivising more companies to invest in the Indian markets.

Due to the fall in travel by international students, many students are unable to fulfil their career and academic goals of studying abroad. ApplyBoard is tapping into this market.

“ With limited international travel over the past year, we at Apply Board are already seeing pent up demand from students looking to study abroad. We are excited for what this new investment into our mission will allow us to accomplish to help our students, partner institutions, and recruitment partners, so that our industry can build back in a post-COVID world,” said Martin Basiri, cofounder and CEO, ApplyBoard.

The company stated that it looks to improve international education facilities by developing new product offerings, expanding to even more countries and growing its support team at scale.