The ed-tech company has reached nearly $4.8 million in a $5.24 million offering, according to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“This investment is an indication that this is the strategy that we want to pursue”

CEO and executive chair, LeRoy Pingho, who joined Quad Learning in December 2017, told The PIE News that the company would use the new funding to work on international student recruitment, rather than the 2+2 pathways it had been promoting.

“The company has taken a pivot from our original charter, which was to provide pathway and 2+2 learning, to an international recruiting function for colleges in the United States,” he stated. “That pivot has created the need for new funding, in order to build out that business model.”

There will be no change to the American Honors program that the company offers, according to Pingho. The company will begin recruiting for US colleges in Asia.

“We are initially starting with recruiting in Vietnam, Taiwan and China and that could expand very rapidly into other countries this year.”

Pingho added that Quad Learning was looking to expand into some parts of Africa and southern Asia.

“We already have 10 colleges that are partners in the United States and we are going to be growing that over the year as well,” he relayed.

The firm also employed a new vice-president of global partnerships and international student recruitment in December 2017 .

“This [investment] is an indication from investors of the company that this is the strategy that we want to pursue… It is a strategy going forward and a pivot that we believe in,” Pingho said.

Phil Bronner launched Quad Learning in 2012, with the aim of providing more affordable paths to top US institutions.

Pingho added that the same eight or nine investors from prior years were coming in again.

“It is obvious that colleges in the US continue to need and want international recruitment for diversity and global reach. We believe, while there may be a decrease [in international students] it is still a very big market, and an active market.

“We are focusing on our core competencies. We are also starting to consider other services that add on to the recruiting strategy, at least for the near future we a staying hyper focussed on recruiting itself.”

He gave two reasons for Quad Learning to expand in the sector.

“Even while declining enrolments might be true, it doesn’t diminish the need – and when I say need it’s two parts – one is what students and colleges want, and continue to desire, but we also very much believe in the good of global education.”

According to other US news reports, the company has seen investment of over $40 million since launch.