Martin Basiri came to Canada from Iran in 2010 to study engineering at University of Waterloo, then started a company with his two brothers to streamline the process for foreign students to apply to universities abroad after seeing how complicated the process could be.
“Talent is evenly distributed around the world. Opportunities are not,” Mr. Basiri said in an interview, adding he could only afford to study in Canada because he got a scholarship. Mr. Baisiri, an entrepreneur since he was a schoolboy, co-founded ApplyBoard in 2015 and led the company as it became one of Canada’s fastest growing startups, raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture capital, and then achieved a valuation of US$3.2-billion in a financing led by Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in 2021 at the height of the pandemic tech bubble. But he was itching to provide even more accessibility to talent from the developing world than ApplyBoard could deliver.
Passage has cash and ambition but fewer than 10 employees, a digital platform under construction, a nascent strategy and a yet-to-be-determined revenue generation plan. “That’s not my first concern,” Mr. Basiri said. “My first concern is to create the flywheel. My experience is that when you solve a big problem, money follows.”