Concourse Global Raises $2M in Seed Funding to Harness AI to Help College Counselors Connect Students with International Education Opportunities

Entrepreneurs / 15th August 2018

 Concourse Global, an online platform for education institutions that brings together college guidance counselors and artificial intelligence to match and connect international students with higher education opportunities, today announced that it has completed the initial closing of a staged $2 million in seed funding led by Colle Capital. Other investors include A-Star Education, Third Kind VC, LearnStart, and Jay Varkey, Group Executive Director of GEMS Education.

As graduating high school students around the world seek an edge in a globalizing economy, they are increasingly crossing borders for their higher education.  International student numbers have quadrupled since 1990, and this is expected to double again in the next decade. It is a $200 billion dollar industry, and institutions worldwide compete fiercely to attract the right students for their programs.  

Although rapidly evolving, the industry does not operate efficiently. High school counselors are overworked, under-resourced, and not always in a position to research the best options for every one of their students. “We have built the industry’s first matching technology platform that enables high schools and universities to collaborate to find opportunities for students,” said Joe Morrison, Concourse CEO.  “Our platform enables counselors to use their knowledge and close relationships with their students to guide the recommendation process and manage interactions with university admissions officers, so that students receive thoughtful, curated offers from interested institutions, not spam.”

A-Star Education and GEMS Education are large international education companies, each operating a global portfolio of K-12 schools. “We are excited to be partnering with our colleagues at Colle Capital on this transaction. Concourse is a unique platform that will bring value and opportunity to the K-12 space,” said Jay Varkey, GEMS Education Group Executive Director.

Brian Rogove, A-Star Education Founder and CEO said “We invested in Concourse because it fills an important niche in the portfolio of institutions and services that we offer our students, and provides a much-needed technology platform in a rapidly growing market.”

Concourse plans to use the new funding to expand and further develop their AI based matching technology to increase opportunities for discovery and engagement between students, high school counselors, and universities.

“AI and marketplaces are at the core of our investment strategy. We are excited to see Concourse apply their deep domain knowledge and technical expertise to the international education market, one of the world’s largest export industries, and to have assembled such a strong industry-specific investor group,” said Victoria Grace, Colle Capital Founding Partner.

Concourse aims to make higher education more globally accessible and affordable by lowering the cost of enrollment management and enabling universities to better plan and allocate their capacity. “This is the future of student recruitment,” said Joe Morrison. “There is a program out there for every student, and a student for every program. Concourse is where they will find each other.”