- Dubai-based platform plans to start a 100% scholarship for one student in one year this year.
- Edutech startup plans to raise series A funding of about $3 million next year and if things work out as planned, eyes an IPO after five or six years.
Necessity is the mother of all inventions and it has proved it true in the case of Craig Fernandes, co-founder and CEO of edutech startup – SecureMyScholarship.
Speaking to TechChannel News, Fernandes, originally from Mumbai, India, said that he was born and raised in Dubai, UAE, in a lower middle class family.
He knew from a small age that he has to work hard to achieve something in life and his dream was to go to America for a university degree but it was the most expensive destination in the world.
“My parents cannot afford it but I got the best scholarship to attend The University of Iowa to attain my degree. I learned firsthand, from my experience, how much of a difference a scholarship can make in a student’s life. ”
Moreover, he firmly believes that a quality and a right education have the potential to unlock potential in people.
Just like me, he said that there are millions of students who are deprived of quality education, not due to their fault just because the cost of higher education is increasing exponentially every year.
“I think that is not fair. Our platform’s mission to make education more accessible and affordable by connecting students with guaranteed scholarships at universities,” Fernandes said.
That is why and how “SecureMyScholarship” was born.
In one and a half year since inception, he said that they have dispersed over $6 million in scholarships to students from over 25 countries through their platform globally.
“Our goal is to disperse $100 million in scholarships by 2027 and we are working on it day and night,” he said.
How it works
The Dubai-based platform holds discussions with universities to bring them students who anyway will not look at the universities due to high fees by providing guaranteed fee waivers and scholarships, thus reducing the tuition burden as much as possible. The university pays part of the students’ fees, about 50 per cent, to attract the students.
The platform charges a fee per student.
Students visiting the platform are first required to select the educational institutions they wish to enroll into, depending on their location, budget or education level requirements, and submit an initial application. After that, the SecureMyScholarship team will work with students to assist them in submitting the application to the university, securing their offer letter, and completing their enrollment.
The team also assists students in filing their visa applications and preparing for their visa interviews, which is also completely free of charge for students.
Unearthing talent
“We work with universities in Dubai, the US and the UK. We work with 95 per cent of the private universities in Dubai, 150 universities in the US and about 130 universities in the UK. Because of the success we have seen, we are going to start a 100 per cent scholarship for one student in one year, starting this fall. This initiative seeks to remove financial and social barriers to higher education so that talented young people from all backgrounds can benefit from it,” Fernandez said.
The startup has already raised $570,000 but has built a viable business model.
“As we continue to grow, we plan to add more universities and further destinations such as Canada, Ireland, continental Europe and Australia,” Fernandez said.
Being an Indian, when asked why not Indian universities, he said that have spoken to some of the universities in India but this model works only when the fees are expensive.
“In India, the supply is higher than the demand. So, the model does not work in India. Next year, we want to raise our series A funding of about $3 million to scale our operations. After five or six years down the line, if things work out as planned, we love to go for an IPO,” he added.