Despite cyclical pressures, the US continues to be the top destination for Indian students who want to pursue higher education and find a job there.
However, students and parents are worried over the reports of the slump in the US job market.
Aman Singh, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of GradRight, said that the demand is up again and Donald Trump was always in favour of tech talent.
During his recent visit to Hyderabad for GradRight’s annual ‘match-making’ event which was attended by students aspiring to pursue higher education and US, Aman shared his insights on the company’s future plans with businessline.
What is the current status of your fundraising efforts?
We raised our first round before the first edition of ShiftED (an annual event organised by GradRight for students aspiring to go for studies to the US and universities there).
We raised another small round of $2.5 million after its first round of financing. The company is currently in the process of raising $15-18 million and is in advanced conversations with a couple of India-based funds.
We are open to raising funds from the US and has appointed an investment bank to assist with this. They expect to secure funding by March or April 2025.
What are your plans for the funds raised?
We registered in the UK and plans to make a small push into the European market, but the primary focus for the next year is to excel in serving their partners in India.
We will start with partnerships with seven UK universities, including the Royal College of Arts. We are open to explore collaboration opportunities with these universities.
We are primarily focused on graduate programmes but will expand to include undergraduate programmes. This expansion will cater to the demand from existing partners to support their undergraduate brand-building and recruitment efforts in India.
GradRight will offer forex services and refinancing options to alleviate the financial burden of international education. They identified that students are paying excessive fees for forex transactions and are stuck with high-interest rates on their loans even after graduating and securing jobs.
We will partner with banking partners to provide dollar loans at cheaper rates and refinancing options for students who are now less risky after securing jobs.
We can help them reduce interest rate expenses to 10-11 per cent from about 15 per cent. We look at removing intermediaries. We are starting new lines of businesses. We have three international partners.
What are your plans for the domestic Indian market?
GradRight is keen on expanding its platform to serve domestic Indian universities. While this segment presents data challenges, the availability of AI and data from various sources allows them to provide students with informed decision-making tools.
They aim to empower students to make wiser choices regarding private higher education in India by providing data-driven insights into the return on investment from different colleges. We actively engage with local universities to explore collaboration opportunities for graduate and undergraduate programs.
They see a chance to help domestic universities with their domestic recruitment efforts. About 30 universities explored opportunities for graduate courses at the ShiftED event. We will work with them for their under-graduation programmes as well.
What is the size of your platform and how effectively are you serving your students?
Our platform currently serves 15,000 students per month, up from 11,000-12,000 earlier this year. They expect to reach 2.5 lakh students by the end of the year as against 1.80 lakh last year. While the platform is attracting a growing number of students, GradRight aims to improve the effectiveness of its services.
They currently assist around 15 per cent of students with loans, approximately 3,500-4,000 students, and plan to increase this number to 10,000 next year. Our aim is to provide quality service and helping students find suitable colleges efficiently.
Is there reduced interest from Indian students to study in the US given the political climate and the job market?
The demand from students slowed down a little bit before the (US) elections. When there is uncertainty everybody becomes cautious. Banks hold back. They don’t clear too many loan applications.
While there was a temporary slowdown in demand due to uncertainty surrounding the election results and anxieties about changes in immigration policies, our data indicates that the demand is rising again. They believe the slowdown was fuelled by misinformation and a poor understanding of the US job market.
We are addressing these concerns through informational sessions with experts to provide students with a realistic view of the job scenario. I feel the economy is on an upturn but students are still carrying over the noise from seven months ago. Trump is pro-qualified people. That’s the reality.
What is this new insurance product you are offering to students?
We are partnering with three insurance aggregators to provide students pursuing education abroad with affordable insurance solutions. The goal is to address the problem of students taking out large loans to purchase overpriced insurance upon arrival in their destination country.
These partnerships will allow students to purchase the same coverage at a much lower cost while still in India, saving them significant amounts of money.
Published on December 10, 2024
