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15| W aterloo C hronicle | T hursday,July 12,2018 w aterloochronicle.ca From the latest information on local politics, to minor sports scores and what's going on down the street, get it all online. CURRENT. COMMUNITY. CONNECTED www.waterloochronicle.ca BUSINESS Visit waterloochronicle.ca for more coverage Martin Basiri knows all about the challenges that come with looking for a school to attend overseas and deal with the uncer- tainty of whether you've made the right decision. "Just to tell you how challenging it is, name five universities in Korea," said Basiri, who hears dead air on the phone. "That's the same for the Korean stu- dents who want to come here, they couldn't name five schools. "This was how clueless I was about Canadian educa- tion." The CEO of local tech company ApplyBoard had to go through all that sec- ond guessing himself be- fore he decided to attend the University of Waterloo. It was ultimately the right decision, but it did cause him some worry about whether it was worth the cost and the commitment his family had to make to send him to Canada from his native Iran. "You are completely lost, you have no clue what to study and where to study," said Basiri. "You're getting fragmented infor- mation from forums, dif- ferent places and different websites. Different univer- sity websites have different information on it - basical- ly the worst part of it is the information is very frag- mented and you can't just go to one resource and get your information." He decided there had to be a better way to match up the international students with prospective institu- tions of higher learning to better meet expectations with outcomes, and pro- vide people with the infor- mation to make informed choices. He eventually graduated with a master's degree in mechatronics en- gineering from UW and came up with an artificial intelligence enabled edu- cational marketplace de- signed to help match inter- national students with the best universities and pro- grams that would meet their needs. "Instead of just Goo- gling and Googling and Googling and not even finding a good source even though you are willing to pay for that information you can come to Apply- Board," said Basiri. "It's a big decision and you want to be sure about that deci- sion, because it is going to be one of the most impor- tant decisions in your life. "We decided to see if we could solve this problem and make an impact on oth- er people's lives." Started in 2015 the com- pany has partnered with more than 750 schools in North America and has helped match more than 10,000 international stu- dents with the right school. The venture has been so successful that the local startup is ready for the next stage after securing more than $13 million last week in Series A funding from Silicon Valley based fund Artiman Ventures. "We are very humbled," said Basiri about securing that venture funding. "We're going to use that money for our growth and to grow our market share to take the company to the next level. "This will also help the product and make it a bet- ter user friendly product to help more and more stu- dents from all over the world." It's tapping into a huge global industry. According to ApplyBoard education is currently the fourth larg- est sector in the Canadian economy, contributing bil- lions of dollars to the coun- try. From the latest num- bers compiled in 2016, in- ternational students con- tributed $15.5 billion to the economy in tuition, book and accommodations. ApplyBoard has had a significant impact in di- recting some of the eco- nomic activity after fun- neling $75 million to the Canadian economy in it's last few years of existence. And even with challenges, like the U.S. tightening its borders and causing the in- ternational student market to decline by four per cent, that still meant that 808,640 international students continue to attend school in the States. A big beneficiary of that has been Canadian univer- sities which have seen a major uptick in the num- ber of international stu- dents applying and attend- ing schools in this country. The economic benefits of that are incalculable, said Basiri, as in brings in intel- lectual and foreign capital. It also means a lot of stu- dents decide to stay in Can- ada and contribute to their adopted country once they become acclimatized to it. "This is a life-changing decision for a lot of stu- dents," said Basiri. "Their lives will be changed with the chance to get into good studies abroad, and get an education they wouldn't be able to get in their own country." Basiri said it's changed his family's life. The process that took a year and a half for him to achieve was whittled down to a month for his twin brothers Meti and Masih, who also came to Waterloo and are now apart of the company. "It was a great experi- ence for both people here and the people back home," said Basiri. "In Canada right now we really are a land of opportunity." BUSINESS Local startup ApplyBoard secures more than $13 million in funding from Silicon Valley based Artiman Ventures Fund will help match more international students with the right school BOB VRBANAC bvrbanac@waterloochronicle.ca Martin Basiri, centre the CEO of ApplyBoard, stands with his brothers Meti and Mashi who are part of the management team of the local startup that matches up international students with universities. The company rescently received more than $13 million in venture funding from Silicon Valley-based Artiman Ventures. Photo courtesy of ApplyBoard