Here’s a deep dive into the situation at ApplyBoard that just appeared in OPM Wire. It’s a fascinating read. According to data from Fidelity, the Canadian student recruitment firm’s valuation has collapsed 74% from its 2021 high of $3.2 billion USD.
One theme of the article seems to be that ApplyBoard is a tech company without any tech. I don’t know if that’s true, but it is worth exploring. In any case, when the book is written about what the heck went wrong with student recruitment in Canada, Applyboard will probably have a chapter all to itself.
The author throws some shade at the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan who led Applyboard’s Series D funding at about that time. Said funding came shortly after a Series C Extension, which the Educational Testing Service (ETS) participated in through its private investment fund. For a few years that participation seemed like a big success story for ETS.
Actually, the linking up of ETS and ApplyBoard was much discussed at that time, but it doesn’t seem like anything ever came of it. Discounted TOEFL test vouchers were available in the ApplyBoard online shop for a while, but they’ve been listed as “sold out” for some time. The vouchers were actually a really good deal. I think they still have PTE and DET vouchers available, if you need to save a few bucks.
I was hired (on a freelance basis) to write a bunch of blog posts for ApplyBoard about four years ago. A few weeks into that project, the ApplyBoard employees working on it were unexpectedly laid off and their email accounts were deactivated. Thankfully, one departing team member was kind enough to wire me my fee just a few hours before packing up their desk. Some of my material randomly appeared on an ApplyBoard blog a few years later but most of it has never seen the light of day.