The firm has raised over $75 mn in venture capital from marquee investors like Sequoia Capital, Owl Ventures, Jungle Ventures, and Harvard Management Company.
Leap Scholar, South Asia’s largest study abroad platform, announced its expansion into the Middle East region. The San Francisco-headquartered company plans to invest $20 million over the next one year to set up a team in the region to serve the end-to-end study abroad needs of students and parents.
The startup has raised over $75 million in venture capital from marquee investors including Sequoia Capital, Owl Ventures, Jungle Ventures, and Harvard Management Company among others. Since its inception in 2019, Leap Scholar has built a growing community of over 1 Million study abroad aspirants.
With its foray into the Middle East, Leap Scholar aims to enable and empower millennials in achieving their global education and professional goals.
The key offerings that students will be able to avail themselves include study abroad counselling, test preparation for standardized exams like SAT, ACT, IELTS, TOEFL, Duolingo, GRE, GMAT etc., university application, visa assistance, and networking opportunities once students have got an admit in universities abroad among others.
The Middle Eastern region is witnessing an upward trend as the total number of internationally mobile students is growing significantly year on year. As per Leap Scholar’s data, the most popular destinations for study abroad aspirants in the region include the UK, US, Canada, and Australia.
The region is turning out to be a key market from where international students come, with a potential of around $11 Billion and over 300K study abroad aspirants currently wanting to pursue global education.
To lead the expansion of the company’s global footprint, Leap Scholar has appointed Zuhaib Khan as the VP for International Expansion. Khan has over a decade of operating experience in building businesses across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East in the E-commerce, Ed-Tech, and Travel sectors.
In his last role, he was the CEO of the education vertical of the Apeejay Stya group where he led the Group’s international expansion across 10 countries. Before joining Apeejay, he was the co-founder of Shopatplaces, an e-commerce firm. “Choosing the right course and getting an admit at the right university is a challenge for students and parents globally and we aim to be their trusted partners in this journey,” said Khan. “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.”
Leap Scholar’s offerings will now be available to students from countries such as 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. Built on a community-led approach, Leap Scholar aims to democratise access to international education for 10 million global citizens over the next decade.
“We are thrilled to have Zuhaib (Khan) 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,” said Vaibhav Singh, Co-founder, Leap Scholar. “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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