Story of AdmitKard: Career Guidance & Foreign Admissions Assistance Platform
📄Company Profiles
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by AdmitKard.
‌‌AdmitKard is a venture capital-funded Edtech that simplifies access to higher education opportunities. Founded in 2017 by Piyush Bhartiya and Rachit Agrawal, the startup has already facilitated admission for 1500 students and is tied up with 2500 universities across the globe.
AdmitKard's platform suggests the best possible universities through data-backed algorithms and applies to these universities from the same platform in a few clicks. The platform also suggests relevant current international students, called Mentors, who can share their real-experience of their journey to studying abroad. From end-to-end guidance on best education loans to profile building and accommodation services, students can get it all in one platform!
StartupTalky interviewed Mr. Piyush Bhartiya (Founder & CEO of AdmitKard) to get insights on the startup story and growth hacks of the company. In this article, you'll discover how AdmitKard started, its founders, AdmitKard's funding details, and more.
AdmitKard - Company Highlights
| Startup Name | AdmitKard |
|---|---|
| Founders | Piyush Bhartiya (CEO), Rachit Agrawal |
| Headquarters | Noida |
| Industry | Edtech |
| Website | admitkard.com |
AdmitKard - About and Vision
AdmitKard - Industry Details
How AdmitKard Started?
AdmitKard - Product/Services Offered
AdmitKard - Founders and Team
AdmitKard - Startup Launch
AdmitKard - Challenges Faced
AdmitKard - Growth
AdmitKard - Funding and Investors
AdmitKard - Advisors/Mentors
AdmitKard - Competitors
AdmitKard - Recognition and Achievements
AdmitKard - Future Plans
AdmitKard - FAQs
AdmitKard - About and Vision
‌‌AdmitKard is a venture capital-funded Edtech that simplifies access to higher education opportunities. A lot of times students are not even aware of the possible opportunities abroad. All they know is the popular universities and courses. For the students who aspire to avail higher education abroad, AdmitKard is here to ensure that they are aware of all the courses, universities, admission criteria, financial support, application procedures, and other necessary details.
AdmitKard's long-term goal is to make global education easily accessible to all by building information transparency and process simplicity. Enabling the flow of global talent is the only way to unlock individual potential.
AdmitKard - Industry Details
As per MEA, there were 5.88 lac Indian students who went to study abroad where globally there are 5mn students who chose to study outside their country. This has been growing at 20% YoY and in next 5 years, more than 1 mn students should go abroad from India. This is one of the fastest-growing market segments.
Ashwini
How AdmitKard Started?
Rachit and Piyush were in London celebrating the success of their first startup venture. Sitting at a cafe in London, surrounded by 20 Indian students, they realized that most of them could have grabbed better opportunities. They could not avail themselves of the course or stream that they aspired for, only due to lack of awareness. Either they were misguided, misinformed, or simply lacked awareness. That is when Rachit and Piyush decided to establish AdmitKard to address the gap.
To be sure of the feasibility of the idea, the founders spent 6 months just researching, conducting surveys, and discussing the idea and model with their mentors. A lot of communication had to be done with the universities as well to understand the channel.
AdmitKard - Product/Services Offered
AdmitKard is an end-to-end platform equipped with all that is required to understand the universities and the courses. The platform suggests the best possible universities through data-backed algorithms and applies to these universities from the same platform in a few clicks. The platform also suggests relevant current international students, called Mentors, who can share their real-experience of their journey to studying abroad. Students get end-to-end guidance from availing of the best education loans, academic, and language test preparations, profile building, accommodation services, and financial services.
AdmitKard's services are its USP. The startup is trying to solve a challenge that has been prevailing for the longest, as offline counselors are unorganized and not tech-enabled.
AdmitKard - Founders and Team
Rachit Agrawal and Piyush Bhartiya are the founders of AdmitKard.
Rachit and Piyush used to work together at BCG. Then they started their own first venture.
"Since we were already enthusiastic entrepreneurs, we understood the fact that if there is a gap, then there is scope too. We decided to start AdmitKard as we could see the scope, challenges, and a feasible model. And all this following an experience that he and I shared together" Piyush added.
AdmitKard is a team of 60 dynamic and young people. A large number of members have been hired on referrals and they maintain a positive work environment. The company has monthly town halls as well as each team member has personalized development plans.
As a founder, Piyush's responsibility is to reach out to more and more students and create the guidance framework while Rachit ensures that each student is delivered the best in class guidance.
AdmitKard - Startup Launch
‌‌If you look at the students, they throng to various social media channels when they are in doubt and are seeking help. AdmitKard created a student community on Facebook and enabled them to get their queries answered by its mentors. Getting the first 100 was a breeze for AdmitKard.‌‌‌‌The team's entire focus has been on creating a world-class product that enables 2 things -
- Best recommendations for the student based on their objective, profile, and preferences
- Making the process simple and transparent by giving them all they need on a single dashboard.
This has enabled AdmitKard to scale its advisory multi-fold with much more additional costs and yet be able to deliver quality at scale. Mentor sessions and webinars have been the most successful campaign for the startup.
Ansh Mehrey
AdmitKard - Challenges Faced
It is a complex problem that AdmitKard is trying to solve. It needs information about lakhs of courses and a wide variety of interests. The team has solved this with their mentor network, where the startup crowdsources data and enables live conversation between mentors and students thereby resolving the most peculiar of doubts.
AdmitKard - Growth
AdmitKard is a startup based in Delhi-NCR. Over the period, the startup has been able to process around 12000 student applications and has guided over 1 lakh+ student. Due to the pandemic, a lot of students were struggling with the admissions, prospects, and uncertainties, which lead to a rise in the number of queries by over 1100 percent on its platform.
AdmitKard has already facilitated admission for 1500 students and is tied up with 2500 universities across the globe.
AdmitKard - Funding and Investors
AdmitKard's funding details are as follows:
| Date | Stage | Amount | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 13, 2021 | Pre Series A | $1 Mn | Vamsi (Vedantu), Ravi Sekhar (Doubtnut), Ashneer (Bharatpe), Mayank (Upgrad), Sumit Jain (Unacademy) |
The team at AdmitKard has tried its best to create relevant tech-enabled solutions. AdmitKard's algorithm helps students discover the best for them. And, it has heavily implemented AI to facilitate counseling for aspirants. All this requires a tech team and a lot of investment, which the startup has been able to pursue following the financial support provided by the investors.
Jeenal Jain
AdmitKard - Advisors/Mentors
- Vamsi – Vedantu
- Ravi Sekhar – Doubtnut
- Ashneer – Bharatpe
- Mayank – Upgrad
- Pankaj Chaddah – Ex-Zomato
- Anand Chandrasekharan – Ex-Snapdeal
AdmitKard - Competitors
Most of the players in the field of foreign education counseling are offline counselors only. And that market is very unorganized. In terms of edtech, AdmitKard claims to be the pioneer in this specific model.
Purbalee Dutta
AdmitKard - Recognition and Achievements
AdmitKard's biggest achievements are its student testimonials and it has 1000s of those. There is no bigger or more important trophy than that. That said, the startup has received multiple awards within the academic community for its career guidance to students by multiple universities and schools.
AdmitKard - Future Plans
AdmitKard aims to help students not only from India but globally to use its platform for taking their education and career decisions. There is already fast traction that the team is seeing and a record number of students are applying through the platform. The startup plans to become a $100 revenue company in the next 2-3 years.
AdmitKard - FAQs
What is AdmitKard?
AdmitKard is a venture capital-funded Edtech that simplifies access to higher education opportunities.
Who are the founders of AdmitKard?
Rachit Agrawal and Piyush Bhartiya are the founders of AdmitKard.
How much is AdmitKard's funding?
AdmitKard has raised total funding of $1 million from Vamsi ( Vedantu), Ravi Shankar (Doubtnut), Ashneer (Bharatpe), Mayank (Upgrad), and Sumit Jain (Unacademy) in Pre-series A Round. Â
Is AdmitKard trustworthy?
AdmitKard's biggest achievement is its student testimonials and it has 1000s of those. One can check AdmitKard's website for more details.
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