Hyderabad: GradRight, a higher education-focused fintech firm in Hyderabad, is trying to change the way students finance their education by bringing students, banks and universities together on a single platform ‘FundRight’, by also increasing loan research and approval time reduce from 2-3 months to just 3-4 days and save lakhs for each student. Sasidhar Sista, co-founder, GradRight, tells Telangana Today what growth opportunities the company sees and the global market scenario.
Funding for growth
We used to raise funds from a close-knit network of individuals in the US. There is a growing investor interest and we are shortlisting investors. The scale at which we want to grow will soon move us aggressively towards fundraising. Active talks are underway, and we will hit the ground running in terms of fundraising in a month or so. The funds will be used to infringe on the US, Canada and the UK.
Global presence
We already have a presence in the UK. We are also making efforts to persuade the US to set up an office there. The US, Canada and the UK will be the three most important markets we will focus on in the future. We want to work with universities in these countries to make international student recruitment possible not only for Indian students, but also those from other countries of South Asia or Africa.
US scenario
GradRight, which has created an algorithm that defines and judges each country based on the ease of settling in a country after academics, has set a higher score to the US with the new administration in place. There is a lot of positivity among the students towards the US with change in policy stance and ease in the pandemic situation. The US is looking up favorably because of these changes. There has been a significant shift, and the number has almost doubled this year compared to last year. Conversions are very high against the US.
Choose the right platform
We will focus on the university selection process through our SelectRight platform that we recently deployed. The entire application process usually takes eight months for a student. Every year, there are a million students who go abroad from India and go through a tedious process. We try to facilitate the process through a simplified evaluation method. We aim to help overseas universities do away with and replace the traditional selection process using technology. Online solutions can help save time.
Emerging technologies
Many students now want to specialize in emerging technologies. They want to study machine learning, robotics, artificial intelligence and deeptech. Those with work experience seek in-depth technology or advanced specializations, while those without experience seek general specializations. Universities are dependent on the global student community of 50 percent or more and are creating courses that are in demand to meet the interests of international students.
Source: Telangana Today