Australia-founded Online Education Services has announced it will invest in The WorldGrad, an online TNE product for students based in India.
A “significant minority investment” will be made to Singapore-based LINC Education Services, which runs The WorldGrad, to scale up the business which enables access to HE after initial online study in India.
“OES’s investment is set to propel the growth of The WorldGrad and will allow more students to study abroad at leading English-speaking universities,” said co-founder of The WorldGrad, Abhinav Mital.
“We are excited to have their support as we look to grow the impact of The WorldGrad portfolio,” he added.
The aim is to help expand the reach of the platform, which has facilitated 25 institution partnerships across Australia, the UK and the US, and enables “accessible pathways into overseas higher education”.
Parent company LINC has already delivered online programs to over 15,000 students in collaboration with universities.
TheWorldGrad offers a similar model to Upgrad Abroad, a sister division to online learning business Upgrad, recently valued as a unicorn business.
“The WorldGrad has significant potential to give students from India transformational access to an international, English-based education that might not otherwise be possible from an accessibility perspective,” CEO of OES Denice Pitt said.
“We can see an enormous benefit to having the strategic guidance of OES”
“We look forward to working closely with The WorldGrad team as they expand their offering to support more students and universities,” Pitt added.
The WorldGrad program also currently supports universities in by setting up a pipeline of students from India which has been “quality-vetted”, OES commented.
Mital at OES commented, “We can see an enormous benefit to having the strategic guidance of OES given their impressive track record delivering quality-driven online education at a global scale.”
LINC was founded in 2017, and has won awards for its innovation in the study abroad space, as well as recognition for its work in online education.
OES is Australia-based with a presence in the UK and the US.
The investment in The WorldGrad also follows OES investment into emerging edtech businesses such as OPM company Construct, study assistance platform Studiosity and upskilling partner Skills Union. It also acquired IDI in 2018.
UK-based Oxford International Education Group is also scaling up its own digital delivery via the Oxford International Digital Institute.
