Leap Scholar, South Asia’s largest study abroad platform, is to invest $20 million to expand its services into the Gulf region.
The San Francisco-headquartered company plans to invest over the next year to establish a “world-class team” in the region to serve the end to end study abroad needs of students and parents.
Leap Scholar’s offerings will be available to students from countries including the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.
Students will be able to avail free access to masterclasses and sessions led by top educators from the industry as part of plans to democratise access to international education for 10 million citizens over the next decade, a statement said.
The key offerings include study abroad counselling, test preparation for exams, university application, visa assistance, and networking opportunities once students have got an admit in universities abroad.
Leap Scholar said the Middle Eastern region is witnessing an upward trend as the total number of internationally mobile students is growing significantly year on year. The most popular destinations for study abroad aspirants in the region include the UK, US, Canada, and Australia.
It added that the region is turning out to be a key market with a potential of around $11 billion and over 300,000 study abroad aspirants currently wanting to pursue global education.
To lead the expansion, Leap Scholar has appointed Zuhaib Khan as the VP for International Expansion.
He said: ”Foraying into a key market like the MENA region will play a huge role in our endeavour and vision of democratising access to international education across the world.”
The start-up has raised over $75 million in venture capital from marquee investors including Sequoia Capital, Owl Ventures, Jungle Ventures and Harvard Management Company, and since its inception in 2019, it has built a growing community of over 1 million study abroad aspirants.
Vaibhav Singh, co-founder, Leap Scholar, said: “We are thrilled to have Zuhaib on board. This is a major step in our journey as we move ahead full steam in 2022 to take the Leap Scholar platform global and help millions of students achieve their international education and career dreams. We are starting with the Middle East, and we plan to subsequently expand to South East Asia, South Asia, and North Africa.”
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