Singapore-based EdTech Startup Cialfo Expands To China

Singapore-based EdTech Startup Cialfo Expands To China

Opens Shanghai Office,
Appoints China Head, Inks New Strategic Partnerships

SHANGHAI, CHINA & SINGAPORE, 25 OCTOBER
2016 – Cialfo, a
Singapore-based education technology (edtech) startup that that streamlines the
college admissions process to top U.S. and U.K. universities through its
software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, has opened its first China office in
Shanghai. The company has also appointed a country head to oversee its China operations
and has inked over 10 new strategic partnerships with China-based education
consultancies in less than 3 months. The announcement follows a successful
fundraising in September that saw top angel investors, including Koh Boon Hwee
(a Singapore Airlines and Temasek board member), back the company.

Jack Cui, Cialfo’s newly
appointed Director of China, will be based out of the Shanghai office. Jack was
formerly the China Operations Director for Gabbitas Education, a top U.K.-based
educational consulting firm, and brings vital knowledge of the Chinese market.
He also brings extensive local relationships with education consulting firms
and agencies in China to drive Cialfo’s operations and expansion in the
country.

Cialfo has also signed ten new
strategic partnership agreements, including with Shanghai Dingshi Education and
with Randian Consultant. Shanghai Dingshi Consultant is an education
consultancy based in Shanghai, which sends its students to universities in the
U.K. and U.S. every year. Randian Consultant, meanwhile, is an investment and operations
company in the education sector with operations in Beijing, Tianjing, and
Heibei.

Both companies will now be
able to take advantage of Cialfo’s SaaS platform to achieve higher acceptance
rates for their students. Beyond its 10 newly inked partnerships, Cialfo is looking to collaborate with more education service
providers and after-school enrichment programs to be able to connect with
existing consultancies on the platform, opening up richer profile-building
opportunities for students.

Rohan Pasari, Co-founder and CEO at Cialfo, said: “Cialfo’s
vision is to help a million students find their dream college through our
platform by 2020. Key to this is to partner with the right education
consultancies to tap into edtech opportunities in Asia, particularly in China
and India where opportunities are most apparent. The new generation of
middle-class want their children to benefit from a good, solid education. They
want them to attend the best colleges in the U.K. and U.S. With competition for
places so high, they look to us and our partners to give them the edge in the
admissions process.”

Jack Cui, Director of Cialfo China, said: “I’m delighted to come
on board Cialfo, an innovative startup in the edtech space, to spearhead the
China operations. I’m here to engage all our different stakeholders – from
students to consultancies – and help Cialfo really make sense of the entire
China education model.”

Yanqun Shao, CEO of Shanghai Dingshi Education, said: “Cialfo’s
white label solution really takes care of the college admissions process
end-to-end. Our students love the features, such as how simple it is to track
their admissions status and priority tasks, all in one easy-to-use platform.
It’s really what’s missing from the education ecosystem, and we can see
adoption among consultancies in and around Shanghai – and further afield –
really ramping up in 2017. It’s not just our students, but our consultants,
too, that love what Cialfo has done.”

Deloitte estimates the overall size of China’s education
industry to grow from 1.6 trillion yuan (US$237.4 billion) in 2015 to 2.9
trillion yuan (US$430.6 billion) by 2020. According to the Chinese Ministry of
Education, there were 62,582 Chinese students who went abroad to study in 2005.
This number has since increased by over eight times, with 523,700 outbound
Chinese students in 2015.