FastForward purchases stake in Schoold

FastForward continues to build its portfolio, announcing today a $1m purchase of a 9.1% stake in Vested Finance Inc., an education technology provider trading under the brand “Schoold”. Vested Finance is the developer and owner of the “Schoold” mobile technology application, a big-data driven College & career counsellor App focused on higher education and career options for students in US education system. The Board of FastForward believes has the potential to be the number one education and career focused app in the US, with particular popularity amongst overseas students wishing to study or work in the US.

This brings the total investee companies in which FFWD has invested to seven as it continues to develop its portfolio of venture businesses across a range of subsectors within the tech and bio-tech sectors.

Lorne Abony founded Schoold and VEMO Education Inc. (another FastForward investment). The Board approached Lorne who agreed that the Company could subscribe for a strategic stake in this exciting business.

Schoold transforms college and career planning by using technology to educate, inform and inspire users about their prospects for a successful future. Schoold is a big-data driven college and career counsellor mobile app with proprietary technologies that exploit leading data science. As a mobile app, Schoold owns and maintains all aspects of content and user experience while benefitting from increased utility among its target student demographic. Schoold features the tools and resources that it believes are most important to users including college, major and career discovery, individualised matching, predictive admissions chances, and financial aid support. Schoold’s customised interface narrows the universe of college and career data to a manageable, relevant amount of information that can be easily navigated, explored, and outcomes assessed.

The US consumer spends more than US$1 trillion annually on education which includes the discretionary and retail spending of the students. Through its mobile app, Schoold intends to capture part of this market by providing higher education counselling and targeted marketing to help educational institutions meet their recruitment needs. Schoold’s potential user base includes large numbers of foreign students, particularly from India and China where there is growing interest from students wishing to continue their studies in the US. Also, users are encouraged to refer the app and share information with parents and adult influencers, who play an advising role in student decision making.

Schoold is led by CEO, Sourabh Ahuja, previously VP Android & Cross-Platform Development at Glu Mobile where he led development of more than 50 Mobile Apps/Games with in excess of 300 million App installs under his management. For the 11 months ended 30 November 2015, Schoold had revenue of US$19,422 and incurred a trading loss of US$1,565,055 for the period.  As at 30 November 2015, Schoold had total net assets of US$603,155. Schoold is currently in a closed beta test period, and VFI are encouraged by the initial response and demand through its Facebook and Instagram ads, as well as during high school conferences that VFI has attended.  It is anticipated that beta testing will be completed shortly and that the international product launch will occur in early March 2016.

The investment in Schoold follows the Company’s investment in Vemo Education Inc., an education technology company working with U.S.-based colleges and universities to provide a platform for income-based student financing programmes, announced on 21 December 2015. Mr Abony is a substantial shareholder of VFI and VEMO.  Following completion of the investment in VFI, the Independent Directors have confirmed to the Company’s nominated adviser that the Company has no intention currently to make any further investment in Schoold or VEMO. As a result of the deal, Lorne Abony is now a director and substantial shareholder in two FFWD investee companies: VEMO and VFI (Schoold). As such, any subsequent investment decisions in respect of these two investments will be taken by the Independent Directors.

FFWD : FastForward purchases stake in Schoold