ApplyBoard, a Kitchener-Waterloo-based AI-enabled recruitment platform helping international students apply to post-secondary education in North America, recently closed a $55 million CAD Series B.
“[We were] able, not only to solve this problem that was untackled for a long time, but also solve it so good that [we] receive huge growth.”
The sizable raise comes just shy of a year after the company closed its $17 million Series A in June 2018. This current round brings ApplyBoard’s overall funding to $72 million CAD, to date. The round was led by Anthos Capital, a California-based investment firm that looks to invest in growth-stage companies, and saw participation from existing investor Artiman Ventures, the early stage venture fund based in Silicon Valley that led ApplyBoard’s Series A.
Martin Basiri the co-founder and CEO of ApplyBoard told BetaKit that the company’s rapid growth precipitated the second raise so shortly after it’s Series A. He noted, after that first round ApplyBoard had a lot of interest and opportunity to raise more capital, but chose to focus on company growth before deciding to bring on more investors. And over a ten month period, ApplyBoard saw 13 times growth in revenue, equating to 1200 percent growth overall.
ApplyBoard, calling itself a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) for international students, has shown consistent growth over the past couple years, with the company noting 10 percent growth from 2017 to 2018, reaching a total of 543,977 students.
“We nailed it – of course, then it was we had a lot of opportunity [to raise again],” Martin explained. He also noted the Series B was so oversubscribed “that we could basically do any sized deal we wanted to.”
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