Applying to colleges is one of the hardest parts of high school, especially for students looking to study abroad. cialfo wants to make the process easier, with a platform that includes school research, communication tools for advisors and students, and Direct Apply, which helps international students find and apply to hundreds of programs with a single application form.
The Singapore-based edtech announced today that it has raised $40 million in Series B funding, led by Square Peg and SEEK Investments.
The round, which also featured recurring investors SIG Global, DLF Ventures, January Capital and Lim Teck Lee, brings Cialfo’s total raised so far to $55 million, including $15 million from Series A announced in February. of 2021.
The company currently has over 170 employees in Singapore, India, the United States and China, and partners with nearly 1,000 universities worldwide, including Imperial College London, the University of Chicago and IE University in Spain.
Ciaflo was founded in 2017 by Rohan Pasari, Stanley Chia and William Hund. The team told Ploonge in an email that Pasari was motivated by his own experiences as a student. He grew up in India and his school did not have a career counselor. As a result, students were left to navigate the college application process on their own.
Pasari originally wanted to go to a four-year university in the United States, but his parents couldn’t afford the high fees of international students, so he applied to schools in Singapore, earning a full scholarship to Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Before graduating, Pasari helped his sister and some of their friends through the college application process, which planted the idea of launching a business in his mind.
Pasari originally started an education consulting firm with Chia, working with around 200 students at its peak. But the two wanted to use the technology to scale up their operations, so they sold their education consultancy in 2017 and used the proceeds to launch Cialfo.
The company operates on the B2B model, selling subscriptions to schools. College counselors invite students to the platform, which parents or guardians also have access to.
“Our mission has always been to help one million students on their college prep journey. We believe there are three necessary pillars – access to information, personalized assistance and financial resources – and bringing all three together will enable the democratization of education,” the team told Ploonge.
The new funding will be used to increase Cialfo’s global user base, add more features and analyze potential acquisitions.