Now a wholly owned subsidiary of Manifest Global, BridgeU joins a growing network of education-focused businesses, including Cialfo.
Both BridgeU and Cialfo, with their strong emphasis on international students, provide platforms that help users explore universities, career paths and connect with higher education institutions – offering college and career planning support on a global scale.
Speaking to The PIE, BridgeU CEO Patrick Whitfield asserted that BridgeU will remain a standalone brand but noted the benefits of being under the same ownership as Cialfo – allowing the organisation to maintain choice while collaborating on product innovation, shared technology, and best practices.
Rohan Pasari, co-founder and CEO of Manifest Global, said that the acquisition of BridgeU enables the Singapore-headquartered global education investment firm to support more schools and guide even more students on their journey to higher education.
“This is about combining expertise and accelerating our mission to open up more life-changing opportunities for students by connecting them with universities worldwide,” continued Pasari.
This is about combining expertise and accelerating our mission to open up more life-changing opportunities for students
Rohan Pasari, Manifest Global
Following the launch of BridgeU in 2015, the business was acquired by Kaplan in 2021.
Whitfield described the latest acquisition as a timely opportunity to unite the two companies in support of students, schools, and universities and believes that in Manifest, there is a “great new home” for the organisation which he joined in 2023 as chief commercial officer and promoted the following the year.
“Schools can choose from two platforms that occupy clear positions within the market and appeal to different schools with different needs. This will make the choice easier for schools and give them confidence that whichever platform they choose, they’ll be accessing high-quality tools and services tailored to their needs,” said Whitfield.
“For universities, while we are at the early stages, we see a major long-term opportunity through the combined scale of the group. Manifest is bringing together a growing house of brands to offer universities unique opportunities to access a very diverse student audience of prospective undergraduate students who are preparing for international study.”
Considering what aspects of business might evolve and what would remain unchanged, Whitfield told The PIE: “Manifest is an ambitious investor that has acquired BridgeU with growth and scale in mind. We are obviously in the early stages but there are exciting opportunities for BridgeU within Manifest thanks to the alignment of our mission, and also the depth of shared expertise within our segment.
“BridgeU has an exceptionally committed and talented team, and our people have played a key role in building our reputation among schools and university partners. Manifest recognises this and sees our talent, culture, and relationships as key strengths that will support growth.”
According to Pasari, the sector has been “crying out for dedicated undergraduate global solutions” which includes data and insight that can “drive better, more cost-effective recruitment of a diverse range of high-quality students”.
“Cost-effective solutions with clearly defined ROI have never been more important to universities – at a time of uncertainty, turbulence and in many markets some significant headwinds, institutions need that more than ever,” he said.
Pasari added: “I think we have the opportunity to fill that space and in doing so help more students on their international education journey.”
The announcement follows Manifest Global’s recent expansion, which included the addition of Delhi-based Kaaiser Australian Education Experts to its growing portfolio.
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