Teachers' Innovation Platform leads $375-million financing for ApplyBoard

• 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.

KITCHENER, CANADA – 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.

About ApplyBoard

ApplyBoard empowers students around the world to access the best education by simplifying the study abroad search, application, and acceptance process to more than 1,500 institutions across Canada, Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. ApplyBoard, headquartered in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, has helped more than 200,000 students from more than 125 countries along their educational journeys since 2015. To learn more, visit: www.applyboard.com

For further information: David Tubbs
david.tubbs@applyboard.com, 226-972-4349

About Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers') is the administrator of Canada's largest single-profession pension plan, with C$221.2 billion in net assets (all figures at December 31, 2020). It holds a diverse global portfolio of assets, approximately 80% of which is managed in-house, and has earned an annual total-fund net return of 9.6% since the plan's founding in 1990. Ontario Teachers' is an independent organization headquartered in Toronto. Its Asia-Pacific region offices are located in Hong Kong and Singapore, and its Europe, Middle East & Africa region office is in London. The defined-benefit plan, which is fully funded, invests and administers the pensions of the province of Ontario's 331,000 active and retired teachers. For more information, visit otpp.com and follow us on Twitter @OtppInfo.

Media Contact: Hugh Christopher
media@otpp.com