Startup helps foreigners head to university here
Brothers in Kitchener have one aim: To ‘make a hard process very, very simple’
KITCHENER — If you live in another country and want to study at a Canadian or American university, it can take up to 18 months to complete the application and receive a response. Martin Basiri knows all about that. So he founded Apply Board Inc. to make the process easier.
Basiri is from Shiraz, Iran, and applied to do a master’s degree in mechatronics and mechanical engineering at the University of Waterloo. He already had a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, a couple of patents and was behind a few startups.
UW wanted Basiri. It had urged him to apply and offered a generous scholarship. Even then, he was astounded at how long and difficult it was to complete the application. “It is a very hard process,” he said. Just converting the grading scheme from his Iranian university to the system used in Ontario took two weeks to figure out.
After completing his master’s degree in 2012, Basiri worked in the United States for more than two years. But he was always thinking about how to make the application process easier for international students.
In May 2015, Basiri returned to this area and founded Apply Board. He is the chief executive officer while his brother, Massi, is the chief operating officer. They applied for startup visas, and had their permanent residence status in eight months.
“I never saw anyone get their permanent residence faster than this,” said Martin Basiri.
In less than 18 months, Apply Board raised more than $2 million in venture capital. It employs 24 people in Kitchener and is hiring developers, data scientists and sales and marketing staff. Its office on the top floor of an office building at 30 Duke St. W. in downtown Kitchener is getting crowded.
More than 3,000 students from 92 countries have used the company’s website to apply for schools across North America. The platform includes universities, colleges and high schools.
About a year ago, Basiri realized he needed to open an office in China. More international students come from China than anywhere else. That country also is third in the world for hosting international students.
But Chinese students can’t see Apply Board’s marketing efforts because of stringent censorship of the internet. Facebook and Google are not available in China. From its office in China, Apply Board uses Chinese social media to reach students there.
“We are very good with social media,” said Basiri. “Our Facebook page alone has 730,000 followers.”
He spent several months in China last year, opening an office, hiring staff and getting a bank account there. Six people work for Apply Board in Beijing. The company also raised venture capital in China for the Beijing operation.
“It is growing very fast in China as well,” said Basiri.
Data provided by the Ontario Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development shows the huge economic impact of international students. Between 2010 and 2017, the number of international students in Ontario increased by 88 per cent.
This year, there are 58,406 international students attending an Ontario university. The average undergrad tuition for those international students is $23,510, compared to $6,327 for Ontario residents. Combined, international students paid more than $1.3 billion in tuition this year.
The Apply Board platform allows a student to collect, scan and store all of the required paper work in one place. That includes birth certificates, passports, high school report cards, diplomas, degrees, university transcripts, letters of recommendation and proof of English language proficiency.
“This information takes you hours and hours to collect from just one school,” said Basiri.
Once everything is downloaded, students just drag and drop the documents into the applications for individual schools.
Knowing the admission requirements for all of the schools, the platform tells applicants within minutes what schools will accept them, or how many schools offer the program they want. It also tells them how long a university takes to process an application, the application fee, deadlines for applying and when the official letter of acceptance will arrive.
Applicants can narrow a search to specific cities or areas where relatives live.
The platform also provides information on the cost of living on campus and off campus, and how much students can expect to earn working part-time. The costs for tuition, meal plans and dorms are detailed for each institution. The website tells them when an application is incomplete and what documents are missing.
“Right now with Apply Board, in less than 15 minutes you can find out which universities will accept you, and apply for them,” said Basiri. “We make a hard process very, very simple.”