Adventus raises $22 million as Labor launches inquiry into student agents

Student recruitment platform, Adventus, has just landed $22 million in a fresh round of funding led by existing investors. This follows a $22.7 million Series A round that closed in 2021.

Founded in 2018 by Ryan Trainor, Lincoln Trainer, Victor Rajeevan and Richard Uren — the platform connects international students with universities over the world. It does this via its subscription-based marketplace that allows international student recruiters to find the right universities and courses for potential students.

The company is said to have placed 100,000 students in overseas courses since 2020.

“The platform provides student recruitment agents with both the tools and technology they need to recommend courses and institutions to best meet a prospective student’s needs,” the Adventus website reads.

“The platform also ensures that the recruitment agent retains 100% of the revenue from successfully placing a student.”

According to the AFR, the fresh cash injection will be used to boost the platform’s tech stack, including AI and automation.

The AFR also reports that Adventus has recently partnered with cricketer Ricky Ponting to help market the platform to Indian students.

“Ricky understands the impact that education can have on the world, and on the lives of students,” Ryan Trainor said to the AFR.

“This fits with our vision that studying abroad is more than just education, it’s the start of a new journey.”

Labor looks into student recruiting agents

Adventus’ latest funding round comes at an interesting time, as recruitment aggregators are coming under the microscope of the Labor government.

Just last month there were reports of a substantial increase in Indian students arriving in Australia and either abandoning their courses for cheaper private vocational colleges or not attending at all, as a way to fast-track access to the job market and potential permanent residency.

According to Education Department data, 77% of Indian students who went into a vocational program in 2021 were originally enrolled in a higher education course.

Agent aggregators are reportedly making it easier for non-genuine students to utilise loopholes in the system due to a lack of human interaction.

A federal inquiry into the regulation of education agents is being led by Senator Deborah O’Neill. One of the problems raised is how easy it is for someone to become an agent or sub-agent and get a cut of the commission for placing a student

“There has been a shift significantly, I guess in the last couple of years, to go to aggregators,” Judith Uren, director of international with the Victorian TAFE Association, said in the inquiry.

“So you don’t know who your agents are, you [don’t] have a core relationship with an agent, and they use sub-agents. Within Victoria, none of the TAFEs use that arrangement because it’s too risky.”

According to Adventus co-founder Victor Rajeevan, agents on their platform are vetted.

“We screen the applications as they come in, and who are the students, and if we come across something like fraudulent documents, we terminate them.”