Draft:Cialfo Draft

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Cialfo is a Singapore-based educational technology (EdTech) company that provides an AI-powered software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for college and career counselling to high schools and other K-12 institutions. Founded in 2017, the company serves high school counsellors, students, and parents across more than 100 countries, primarily through a business-to-business (B2B) subscription model sold to schools. Cialfo is notable for its Direct Apply portal, which allows students to submit applications to universities from within the platform. Its key investors include Square Peg, SEEK Investments, Tiger Global Management, and Susquehanna International Group (SIG). In January 2025, Cialfo was restructured to become a subsidiary brand within a newly formed parent company, Manifest Global.

History

Origins and founding

Co-founder Rohan Pasari grew up in Kolkata, India, and attended a high school that did not have a dedicated college counsellor. He later studied Mechanical Engineering, Entrepreneurship, and Economics at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. While at NTU, Pasari partnered with Stanley Chia to start a tech-enabled education consultancy that provided one-on-one college admissions guidance to students in Singapore, growing the business from helping around 20 students in 2012 to 200 students annually by the mid-2010s. The consultancy secured early pre-Series A funding from Govin Capital via the FundedHere platform, along with backing from angel investors including former SingTel, DBS Bank, and Singapore Airlines chairman Koh Boon Hwee.

In 2017, Pasari and Chia sold the consultancy to the private-equity-backed family office Verlinvest. Using the proceeds, and joined by new co-founder William Hund, they launched Cialfo as a technology-first platform to scale their college-guidance mission to students worldwide. The company’s stated long-term mission is to make higher education accessible to 100 million students worldwide.

Growth and expansion (2018-2020)

Cialfo grew steadily in its first few years, opening offices in Singapore, New York, Beijing, and New Delhi, and integrating with the Common Application's third-party developer platform in 2018 to allow electronic transcript and recommendation-letter submission, alongside a parallel integration with Parchment for document delivery. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cialfo hosted its first Online University Fair that drew roughly 18,000 students and counselors attending 138 sessions hosted by 96 institutions.

Funding rounds

Series A (May 2019) - Cialfo raised USD 3 million in a Series A round led by DLF Venture, with participation from SEEDS Capital, YK Capital, and a group of angel investors. The round brought Cialfo's total funding at the time to over USD 5 million, which the company described as making it Singapore's best-funded edtech startup to date. Proceeds were earmarked for Cialfo's expansion into the United States. At the time of the round, Cialfo reported a headcount of around 25 employees. The company said it served clients in more than 40 countries, including early U.S. adopters such as Castilleja School (Palo Alto, California), Episcopal Academy (Newtown Square, Pennsylvania), Loyola High School of Los Angeles (Los Angeles, California).

Series A extension (February 2021) - Cialfo extended its Series A round to a total of USD 15 million, up from the USD 3 million raised in its May 2019 Series A round for its U.S. expansion. The extended round was co-led by SIG (Susquehanna International Group) and Vulcan Capital and included new investors January Capital and Bisk Ventures. Angel investors Patrick Walujo and Teik Ngan Loy participated, alongside returning investors DLF Venture, Alto Partners Multi-Family Office, and Immobiliari. The company said the capital would fund data-science and AI-driven product development and support expansion into K-12 markets in India, China, and Southeast Asia.

Series B (January 2022) - Cialfo raised USD 40 million in a Series B round led by Square Peg and SEEK Investments, with continued participation from SIG Global, Vulcan Capital, DLF Ventures, January Capital, and Lim Teck Lee. The round brought the company's total funding to USD 55-57 million (reported figures may vary slightly by source), including the USD 15 million Series A announced in February 2021. At the time, Cialfo reported more than 170 employees across Singapore, India, the United States, and China, and partnerships with roughly 1,000 universities, including Imperial College London, the University of Chicago, and IE University in Spain.

Series B extension (March 2022) - Cialfo secured an additional USD 20 million in a Series B extension led by U.S. investment firm Tiger Global, bringing the company's cumulative funding to USD 77 million. Cialfo said the round had originally targeted USD 20 million but was tripled in size amid pandemic-era demand for international student mobility and virtual college recruitment. Industry analysis firm VentureCap Insights estimated the company's valuation at approximately USD 230 million following the round. The funds were earmarked for expansion in strategic markets, including India as well as new scholarship initiatives.

Acquisitions and expansions

In January 2025, Cialfo underwent a corporate restructuring to become the foundational entity of a newly announced parent group, Manifest Global, a Singapore-headquartered education investment firm led by Rohan Pasari as CEO. Under the new structure, Cialfo continues to focus on the K-12 counselling market, while sister brand Explore serves university-facing student and counsellor outreach, and Kaaiser - a New Delhi-based international student placement firm founded in 1996 - joined as Manifest Global's external strategic investment. Manifest Global said it was backed by existing Cialfo investors, including Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital, Square Peg Capital, Tiger Global, SEEK Growth, DLF Ventures, Cercano Management, and January Capital.

In April 2025, Manifest Global expanded its portfolio further by acquiring 100% of BridgeU, a London-headquartered university and careers guidance platform, from test-prep and education group Kaplan. BridgeU had launched in 2015 and operated under Kaplan's ownership from 2021 until the acquisition.

Platform and services

Cialfo operates as a B2B SaaS platform, selling annual subscriptions to schools and school groups, which then onboard students, whose parents and guardians are also given access to relevant dashboards. As of the mid-2020s, the company reports that its platform is used by schools, counsellors, and students in more than 100 countries.

Key components of the platform include:

• Direct Apply - Cialfo's proprietary application-submission tool, which the company states support more than 1,200 partner universities and 75,000+ programmes across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Japan, and Europe.
• cDocs (document sending) - An electronic document-transfer feature that lets counsellors send transcripts, recommendation letters, and school forms directly to receiving institutions, reducing manual paperwork during application season.
• Third-party integrations - Cialfo integrates with the Common Application (Common App) for U.S.-bound applicants, UCAS for UK-bound applicants, and Parchment for transcript exchange. It also connects with student information systems such as PowerSchool and Veracross, and with assessment providers such as Mindler and Human eSources.
• Cialfo Guides - In-house destination and university admissions experts who run live advising sessions and workshops for students.
• Saige - Cialfo's in-house AI assistant, which offers personalised university recommendations and helps prioritise student tasks.
• Comet - A student services marketplace, launched under the Cialfo and BridgeU brands, connecting high school students and admitted students with vetted third-party providers for profile building and pre-departure services such as test preparation, visa support, tuition payment, accommodation, insurance, and SIM cards, through partners including ETS, Duolingo, Flywire, University Living, and Casita.
• University discovery and profile-building tools - Including a searchable university and programme database, a gamified student profile builder, and career/psychometric assessments.
• Counsellor dashboards and reporting - Centralised views that let school counsellors track application status, missing documents, upcoming deadlines, and outcomes across their entire caseload.
• Scholarship search - The student dashboard surfaces scholarships tied to shortlisted institutions and indicates the highest award amount a student may be eligible for.

Cialfo's largest reported regional markets, alongside its Singapore home base, include India - where it says tens of thousands of students use the platform annually - and other parts of Southeast Asia and China, alongside a presence in the United States. The company has stated that a majority of its student users apply to multiple countries rather than a single destination, a trend it has cited as evidence of rising international student mobility.

Partnerships

Cialfo's core partnerships are with K-12 schools and school groups, which subscribe to the platform and onboard their students, counsellors, and parents. Schools and school groups reported in press coverage, school handbooks, and testimonials as Cialfo users include:

• The University of Chicago (United States)
• Shiv Nadar School (multi-campus India group)
• Canadian International School
• WFLA (China)
• Nord Anglia Education
• Lighthouse Learning Group
• The Common Application (Common App), UCAS, and Parchment, as core application- and document-routing integration partners

In 2022, Cialfo (now Manifest Global) also convened a University Advisory Board composed of admissions leaders from a range of U.S. institutions to help guide its higher-education-facing product roadmap, and it has participated in NAFSA (Association of International Educators) conferences and similar sector events.

Awards and recognition

According to Cialfo and third-party sources, the company's recognitions include:

• Rohan Pasari, CEO of Manifest Global, was named Emerging Leader of the Year (Asia Pacific and South Asia) at The PIE Live Asia Pacific 2025, a regional recognition presented alongside The PIEoneer Awards
• TIME and Statista's World's Top EdTech Companies list, 2024
• HolonIQ's list of 50 most promising EdTech startups
• "50 Voices of 2023" recognition by The PIE Leadership Digest
• Great Place to Work certification in both Singapore and India

The company and its leadership have also been featured in outlets including Forbes, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, The Straits Times, Tech in Asia, and Times of India, among others.

See also

• Educational technology
• College admissions in the United States
• School counseling
• Common Application
• UCAS

External links

• https://www.cialfo.co/
• https://www.linkedin.com/company/cialfo-pte-ltd/
• https://www.youtube.com/@CialfoHQ