- Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board leads Series D round, through its Teachers’ Innovation Platform
- Participation from existing investors such as Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, BDC, Harmonic, Index Ventures, Blue Cloud Ventures, and Garage Capital, also participated
- New capital will be used to meet the pent-up demand of international students looking to study abroad through new product offerings, destination countries, and expanded support teams at scale
ApplyBoard, the online platform that empowers students around the world to access top quality education, today announced it has raised C$375 million (US$300 million) in Series D funding at a post-money valuation of C$4 billion (US$3.2 billion).
The round was led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers’), through its Teachers’ Innovation Platform (TIP). TIP focuses on late-stage venture and growth equity investments in companies developing innovative technologies. Existing investors Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, BDC, Harmonic, Index Ventures, Garage Capital, and Blue Cloud Ventures also participated in the round. Since its founding, ApplyBoard has raised C$600M (US$475M).
“Education has the power to change lives and bring peace to the world, and ApplyBoard is more committed than ever to helping the millions of students who are dreaming of studying abroad,” said Martin Basiri, Co-founder and CEO, ApplyBoard. “With limited international travel over the past year, we are seeing pent-up demand from students looking to study abroad. We are excited for what this new investment will allow us to accomplish to help our students, partner institutions, and recruitment partners, so that our industry can build back better in a post-COVID world.”
Built upon the fundamental belief that education is a right and not a privilege, ApplyBoard is on a mission to educate the world by democratizing access to international educational opportunities. ApplyBoard has grown in six years to be the online market leader in the study abroad industry, helping more than 200,000 students with their application journey, and plan to support millions in the coming years.
ApplyBoard’s rapid growth continued this past year, expanding to offer access to international educational programs in the UK, Australia, and the US and doubling the number of global team members to more than 1,000. ApplyBoard has also added new products and services over the past year, including ApplyProof, which enables stakeholders in the student journey (including admissions officers and immigration officials) to trust the authenticity of documents, such as English test scores, letters of acceptance, and more.
“At Ontario Teachers’, we have a fundamental belief in the value of a top quality education,” said Olivia Steedman, Senior Managing Director, TIP. “ApplyBoard’s technology platform is simplifying the process of connecting students and educational institutions and creating greater opportunities for education globally.”
ApplyBoard 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 easier for others.
For more such updates and perspectives around Digital Innovation, IoT, Data Infrastructure, AI & Cybsercurity, go to AI-Techpark.com.
