In the last 18-24 months we have seen growth in the number of course types we support (we initially only funded Business related courses but as of 2019 have been funding STEM and Health courses), number of schools we work with (over 800 so far), and countries of study (we are looking to expand our schools in Canada & even add Australia very soon).
Our loans do not require a collateral (guarantee / security) or a co-signer and are rather based on the future earning potential of the student, which is established by virtue of having an admit from a leading school / university. This payday advance Cleveland Cleveland approach fits very well with an average Indian student, who comes from a middle-class background but dreams of constructing a better life. So, we are aiming to grow our reach beyond the tier 1 cities in India and in order to do so, we are actively building and scaling our study abroad partner network across India. We aim to closely work with admission consultants, test preparation companies and loan counsellors from deep pockets of India, so as to be able to serve the needs of deserving Indians, who might not yet know about Prodigy Finance.
For a lot of our Indian students, Prodigy Finance is the only option they have in terms of securing a student loan
Partners and third parties – We work with schools directly with referral partners within the sector, as well as a couple of influencers.
Direct engagement with students – We have Whatsapp and Telegram groups to be in touch with students in real-time, we host regular webinars, and ensure that our potential customers can chat with students we’ve already funded via our website.
Owned channels – Obviously we have our website, and are active on Instagram and LinkedIn. We are working hard on putting out more content this year and improving its quality for the students. Watch this space!
S International Development Finance Corporation), a US government owned development bank focused on solving the most critical challenges facing the developing world
Overall, in 2020, we saw a huge demand for our loans, which meant that there were specific segments of students we were unable to serve. While 2020 was a very difficult year for the student community in general, we’ve tried to support them in the best way we possibly could. Indian students for instance experienced a lot of uncertainties in terms of securing their student visas. They also faced challenges in terms of adapting to online classes, since travel to study destinations such as the US were not fully open. We’ve had a fair share of learnings coming out of the storm that 2020 was. First and foremost, we’ve developed a greater appreciation for the impact we can have on our student borrowers. We’ve become more sensitive to this and are working hard to ensure that we can serve more and more deserving students. We’ve also learnt the importance of timely communication and transparency and have made some changes in our process to incorporate these aspects.
The market opportunity for international student loans stands at $100 billion, based on projections that by 2025 there will be 8 million international students globally. India and China have historically led the charge in terms of sending the highest number of students to study abroad annually. There were almost one lakh Indian students that went for higher studies in 2020, which was slightly lower from 2019, largely due to the uncertainties thrown in by the pandemic. Overall, we operate in a large and growing market, even if you only consider India as a segment.
The year 2020 was very difficult for everyone and it was no exception for Prodigy Finance. However, we are proud to have come out of 2020 stronger and more resilient than ever before. We crossed some major milestones last year, the first and foremost being that we crossed the $1Billion threshold in terms of loans disbursed, and we passed an overall total of 20,000 students funded – from 130 nationalities. India, obviously, was a very strong contributor towards helping us achieve these significant milestones. Apart from this, we also successfully raised funding from DFC (U.