This edtech startup wants to “democratise” university applications process

Cialfo has helped over 500 students get accepted into their dream schools.

When Stanley Chia and Rohan Pasari went through the university application process and found that the information pertaining to university applications was scattered, they got frustrated. There was no one portal that could offer all the help they needed.

Pasari began helping a few friends with their applications, gaining insights into a lot of nuances along the way. In late 2012, he and Stanley decided to officially set up Cialfo.

Cialfo is Singapore's leading edtech startup and university applications consultancy. Its vision is to democratise tertiary education globally. Over the span of three and half years, the two have helped over 500 students get into their dream universities including Harvard, Stanford, LSE, and Kings College London.

With the vision to impact more people and scale aggressively to different geographies such as India, China, and Vietnam, Cialfo recently opened its proprietary tech platform on a software-as-a-solution (SaaS) basis, catering to consultancies and education institutions. "Our recently raised pre-series A round will partly fund our expansion efforts in Asia," Pasari said.

Cialfo's SaaS platform brings all the key stakeholders in the higher education ecosystem onto one single platform to facilitate seamless communication and, in turn, democratise the applications process.

Singapore-based investment firm Govin Capital and Koh Boon Hwee, Former Chairman of Singtel, DBS Bank, and Singapore Airlines are supporting us with their investments.