By Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo, Reporter
EDUCATION technology platform Edukasyon has received funding which will help the start-up in its expansion in Visayas and Mindanao.
The start-up company, which operates the website Edukasyon.ph, has received funding from Asian and European investors, including KSR Ventures and French Partners. The website aims to guide students in their educational and career paths, and combines school and program application choices, school information guides, and scholarship information.
The company did not disclose the amount of funding, but Edukasyon CEO and Founder Henry Motte-Muñoz said the new funding will help in the company’s product development and geographical expansion.
The company is headquartered in Metro Manila but has presence in Visayas and Mindanao. Users outside Metro Manila account for 40% of the website users.
“The new funding will help us add new verticals on our platform (by increasing product development) while expanding our offices in Visayas and Mindanao,” Mr. Motte-Muñoz said in an e-mail interview.
The company’s Pre-Series A funding comes before its planned Series A in the fourth quarter of 2018. It closed its seed financing round in December 2016, led by United Kingdom-based impact fund Mustard Seed and supported by other impact funds, family offices and angel investors.
Edukasyon was founded in 2015, serving as a platform to connect students to educational institutions in the Philippines and abroad. The website initially targeted senior high school students in Metro Manila.
The company said it now connects more than 1 million students a month to more than 10,000 educational institutions. It has also already expanded to colleges, technical vocational schools and study abroad services.
Mr. Motte-Muñoz said he got the idea of starting the website due to his experience studying abroad and seeing a relative apply for university, recognizing the differences in education and career knowledge provided abroad and in the Philippines.
“I got the idea for Edukasyon back in 2012 when I saw my cousin apply to college. Having studied in the United Kingdom, I was shocked at how much information asymmetry there is. The decision making process of applying to college didn’t seem very structured — it seemed like students were making decisions based on loose reputations and not really based on what career they would want or what school would be best for them. It was a sharp contrast from what I experienced abroad,” he said.
The company has a bigger goal of expanding in the Southeast Asian region.
Mr. Motte-Muñoz believes that Edukasyon.ph’s growing pool of users and revenues shows the business indeed solves the problem of students’ limited resources in terms of choices in higher education and careers.
“We are solving a real & pervasive human problem (access to higher education) with a solution that works — as evidenced by our growing user and revenue traction,” he said.
By 2020, Edukasyon aims to help 50 million students in Southeast Asia make decisions regarding their higher education.

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