As times evolve, people are more open and willing to send their children abroad to pursue higher studies. They want them to attend the best colleges in the U.K. and U.S. With the competition for places so high, Edtech startup Cialfo attempts to give them the edge in the admissions process and make the underlying procedure simple and convenient. It streamlines the college admissions process through its software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform.
The service, available on web and mobile, increases the effectiveness by enabling efficient task management, managing communications with their students and parents; and an automated proprietary college shortlisting algorithm.
Cialfo is on a mission to democratize tertiary education globally and help 1 million students through its platform by 2020. Following a successful pre-series A round, it is now opening up its first China office in Shanghai. It has appointed Jack Cui as country head to oversee its China operations, who will be based out of the Shanghai office. Previously, he served as the China Operations Director for Gabbitas Education, a top U.K.-based educational consulting firm.
Jack brings with him vital knowledge of the Chinese market and extensive local relationships with education consulting firms and agencies in China. He will be responsible to drive Cialfo’s operations and expansion in the country. Commenting on his appointment, Jack says,
I’m delighted to come on board Cialfo, an innovative startup in the edtech space, to spearhead the China operations. I’m here to engage all our different stakeholders – from students to consultancies – and help Cialfo really make sense of the entire China education model.
Cialfo has inked over 10 new strategic partnerships with China-based education consultancies in less than 3 months including with Shanghai Dingshi Education and with Randian Consultant. Shanghai Dingshi Consultant is an education consultancy based in Shanghai, which sends students to universities in the U.K. and U.S. every year. Randian Consultant, meanwhile, is an investment and operations company in the education sector with operations in Beijing, Tianjing, and Heibei.
Both the firms can leverage Cialfo’s SaaS platform to achieve higher acceptance rates for their students. Beyond these partnerships, the Singapore-based startup seeks to collaborate with more education service providers and after-school enrichment programs to be able to connect with existing consultancies on the platform, opening up richer profile-building opportunities for students.
Rohan Pasari, Co-founder and CEO at Cialfo, said,
Cialfo’s vision is to help a million students find their dream college through our platform by 2020. Key to this is to partner with the right education consultancies to tap into edtech opportunities in Asia, particularly in China and India where opportunities are most apparent.
