Enabling Data-driven Career Choices Bhartiya looks to grow 10x and reach new geographies this fiscal

Piyush Bhartiya, co-founder, AdmitKard, about the genesis for their study abroad counselling ed-tech says, "The mission was to help students take better informed decisions about their careers. As ex-management consultants, we believe that if you have enough data, you can actually use that to make better decisions. So, we started with the hypothesis of bringing in transparency using key data points around universities, courses and decisions that students are taking; how it's impacting their careers and ROI and bring it to the student."

"As we grew, the students also wanted process help. Hence, we created AdmitKard, a full-stack model, where we provide everything that one needs to complete their journey so that they are not misled by those outside of it."

Their USP, says Bhartiya is to, "Help students take decisions using data and actual student experiences of opting for those education options from an international education point of view."

"In our business model, we enable students to apply anywhere in the world free of charge; only advanced services are charge. Also, we have recruiting relationships with 1,000s of universities around the world. So, the universities also pay us a recruitment fee for the students that are recruited to the schools," says Bhartiya.

"We also offer a panel of services through various service providers, including test prep services/education loans/pre-remittance/bank account opening/travel services and accommodation for which we charge the panel a marketing fee," he adds.

He makes an interesting point about ed-techs struggling with operational and financial difficulties. "The key reason behind bad unit economics is cost of acquiring a customer. Here, we have created a wide organic funnel of close to a million students who interact with our properties across social media, website and blogs. We created a very wide organic reach to the student community."

"We receive more than three referrals from over 70% of the students who apply to the platform. So, our growth engine is largely organic and we would actually have 1/10^th the CAC as compared to our competition and other ed-tech companies."

On their future plans says Bhartiya, "We plan to grow another 10x in FY 2022-23. We are also looking at engaging with school students more early in their decision-making. Also, we definitely are targeting the Middle East and Nigeria."

FACTSHEET

Year of establishment : 2019

No. of employees ~ 100

Amount of external funding and leading investors : USD $3.5 million led by Phani Kishan (Swiggy), Pankaj Chaddah (ex-Zomato), Varun Alagh (Mamaearth), Ashneer Grover (Bharatpe), Mehul Agarwal (Cars24) and Abhay Singhal (InMobi).

Average course fee : ~ Rs 25,000

Students counselled : 1,00,000