Today marks ApplyBoard’s seventh anniversary of supporting international students globally! Between 2021 and 2022, the world has changed a lot. However, one thing that’s remained constant is ApplyBoard’s commitment to making education accessible to everyone.
To celebrate the lives we’ve changed and how ApplyBoard has grown, let’s take a look at what we’ve been up to.
Growth in Every Way Imaginable
ApplyBoard has soared on every scale, but the achievement we’re most proud of is helping more than 300,000 students from over 125 countries since our founding.
To help us support our students, we raised C$375M in Series D investment funding in June 2021. The round was led by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board through its Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG). Existing investors BDC, Blue Cloud Ventures, Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, Garage Capital, Harmonic, and Index Ventures also participated in the round. This funding has enabled us to:
- Develop dynamic and innovative product offerings.
- Partner with more educational institutions in new destination countries.
- Grow our support teams.
- Serve a broader diversity of students and recruitment partners globally.
We were also thrilled to grow to 1,500 team members strong, working in more than 25 countries. Without the efforts, commitment, and passion of our entire ApplyFam—not to mention our dedicated partners—we couldn’t have become the world’s largest online platform for international student recruitment.
New Year, New Beginnings
Another big win for ApplyBoard was ranking #8 on LinkedIn’s 2021 Top Startups List in Canada—“an annual ranking of the emerging startups to work for.” LinkedIn defines a startup “as a company that is independent and privately held, has 50 or more employees, is seven years old or younger, and is headquartered in the country on whose list they appear.” This year’s ranking was bittersweet, as it’s our seventh birthday; we will no longer be a startup in 2023. But our mission remains the same. As we continue to evolve as a company, so will the number of students we help, and that’s what really matters.
Check out ApplyBoard’s video to find out why labels aren’t everything!
Surprising the Recipients of the STEM for Change Scholarship Program
After announcing our STEM for Change Scholarship Program on International Women’s Day in 2021, the scholarship applications flooded in. After careful consideration, a panel of women judges narrowed the applications down to seven winners. In September, ApplyBoard had the pleasure of announcing our seven recipients of the 2021 STEM for Change Scholarship.
Our goal with STEM for Change is simple—we want to drive diversity and inclusion in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) by empowering women worldwide to pursue an education in these fields. Through this merit-based scholarship program, we had the opportunity to do exactly that. Helping the next generation of female leaders achieve their dreams has truly been an honour!
Watch Our Video to See the Recipients’ Reactions:
Celebrating the Grand Opening of the Gurugram Office
After months of hard work, we announced the grand opening of our new office in Gurugram, India in October 2021! This state-of-the-art space, located in DLF World Tech Park, has allowed ApplyBoard to continue breaking down barriers to international education for students in India. It’s also ensured we can meet the needs of our international students, recruitment partners, partner schools, and our growing team of over 400 team members in India. If you’re ever in the Gurugram area, we welcome you to check out the new space and meet the ApplyBoard India team!
Raising C$260K to Purchase Oxygen Concentrators in India
A proud moment for all of us was raising over C$260,000 with our partners to buy oxygen concentrators for medical facilities in India. After one of the COVID-19 pandemic’s deadliest surges struck India, countless residents experienced crippling shortages of medical-grade oxygen. We felt this keenly, as many of the individuals impacted were family and friends of ApplyBoardians. With the support of Yorkville University, World Education Services, and Anthos Capital, along with many other generous fundraising efforts, ApplyBoard helped provide relief to many of those suffering.
Acquiring Panda Portal, Rebranded as TrainHub
In March 2022, ApplyBoard celebrated its first acquisition! Acquiring Panda Portal, an international education industry training ecosystem, proprietary technology, and software platform, was a monumental achievement for ApplyBoard. As part of the acquisition, Panda Portal has been rebranded as TrainHub, and will remain a stand-alone platform powered by ApplyBoard. TrainHub provides vital support to our overall global strategy, enabling recruitment partners worldwide to access accurate information and set their students up for success.
The Best is Yet to Come
As ApplyBoard continues to pursue our mission of making education a right, not a privilege, we know we’ll create new opportunities for students everywhere and succeed in educating the world. The past seven years have been filled with growth and countless lives changed. It’s only up from here!
Join ApplyBoard today to be part of our journey and mission to educate the world!
