Bukas PH parent company ErudiFi raises $5 million to scale education financing services in the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — ErudiFi, a tech-enabled company providing access to affordable education financing in Southeast Asia and responsible for the operations of Bukas PH, announces the close of a $5 million Series A round co-led by Monk's Hill Ventures and Qualgro.

The funding will be used to make key hires across product and engineering, marketing and operations, business development and data functions.

The company also plans to scale ErudiFi’s education financing services, deepen its footprint in existing markets in the Philippines and Indonesia with educational institution partners, and invest in product innovation to deepen ErudiFi’s engagement and relationship with students and schools.

"With our network of partner schools, we hope to reach as many students as possible across the country. At Bukas, we believe that making education more affordable will provide a better tomorrow for Filipino families," said Jon Robert Emlano, country manager for Bukas PH.

To date, Bukas has onboarded partner institutions nationwide like Mapua University, Far Eastern University, Adamson University, Our Lady of Fatima University, PHINMA Education Network, University of Nueva Caceres, Centro Escolar University and Eskwelabs, among others.

“We are grateful for the financing option that Bukas PH provides as it has been of great help to our students and their families. Through this partnership with Bukas PH, we can enable more students to continue with their studies, especially during these trying times,” said Jericho P. Orlina, assistant vice president for Business Affairs at Centro Escolar University.

 We hope to see more students avail of this and continue pursuing higher education in the coming years,” he added.

Today, ErudiFi’s tech-enabled platform has helped secure funding for thousands of financially underserved students and has grown three times in 2020. With its Study Now, Pay Later model, ErudiFi facilitates education financing for students in Southeast Asia, beginning with the Philippines and Indonesia.

Working with accredited schools and universities, ErudiFi offers data-driven financing solutions that support student recruitment and retention, which allows students the opportunity to achieve their aspirations by overcoming financial constraints in paying for educational programs.

"Our partnership with Monk's Hill Ventures and Qualgro opens a greater opportunity for us to further our mission in making education more affordable in Southeast Asia. Nearly two-thirds of Filipino and Indonesian youths are unable to access higher education due to the lack of financing, and it is our dream to be able to bridge this gap,” said Riche Lim, cofounder, chief financial officer, and chief strategy officer at ErudiFi.

With this partnership, we are grateful to be able to pursue our goal of helping students build a better tomorrow,” he added.

Relentless focus on product innovation is key for ErudiFi. Its tech-enabled customer and partner onboarding process provide a trusted and accessible solution for students and schools.

In addition, student retention is a challenge in Southeast Asia including the Philippines, with many schools experiencing 10-15% dropout rates annually, primarily due to financial difficulties faced by students and their families.

To address these challenges, ErudiFi has launched a value-added service providing partner schools with a way to track disbursements and provide real-time analytics, supporting school partners in both recruitment and retention efforts.

“Education financing is a huge opportunity in Southeast Asia. ErudiFi provides a tech and data-driven platform to make access to financing easier for more students while enabling universities and schools to manage and monitor their student pipeline more effectively,” said Heang Chhor, founder and managing partner of Qualgro.

ErudiFi aims to shape trusted relationships with universities and partner institutions as they expand in the region and the Qualgro team is excited to work closely with them to scale their reach,” he added.

For more information on the education financing solutions, you may find out more through www.bukas.ph.