Waterloo Engineering alumnus and co-founder of ApplyBoard, Martin Basiri (MASc '12, mechanical and mechatronics engineering), announced the launch of his new company called Passage.
Backed by $40 million in venture capital financing from Drive Capital, Passage will help international students get the financing they need to attend universities and colleges in Canada.
ApplyBoard, one of Waterloo Region’s tech unicorns, helps international students search, apply and gain acceptance to universities in Canada, the U.S., Britain and Australia. Passage will focus on helping international students find the money to study and train in Canada so that they can fill critical labour shortages in fields such as engineering, bioscience and skilled trades.
“Since day one of starting ApplyBoard I was always seeing people that are brilliant. They are very, very capable students and just because they don’t have money they can’t come. And I thought, we must change this. There has to be a better way,” Basiri said in a news release.
“The biggest problem in accessibility to education is financial access, period.”
Basiri left his job as chief executive of ApplyBoard last year but remains on the company's board of directors. His brother Meti Basiri is now the CEO.