Yocket: hassle-free and easy study abroad

Indians have always viewed study abroad as an expensive process. While this is somewhat true, it is also an exhaustive process. The lack of good advice, problems with student loans, visa applications and housing are among the main obstacles. These problems had prevented many Indian students from even considering going abroad for higher education. It was behind the launch of Mumbai-based Yocket in 2015, a platform that leverages AI and ML to help students find the best university to study abroad. The founders of Yocket were unable to travel overseas due to these factors. They realized that demystifying the process would be extremely helpful for aspirants and that is exactly what they did.

The journey of Yocket’s three co-founders, Sumeet Jain, Tumul Buch and Kashyap Matani, dates back to their engineering years at DJ Sanghvi College of Engineering in Mumbai, where they first met. “Today, Yocket is India’s largest platform for study abroad applicants, offering comprehensive services to students,” said co-founder Sumeet Jain. It includes help with GRE, prequalification, visa applications, soft landing, loans, forex, and accommodation. Embracing technology at its core, the platform helps students get placed in the university that best suits their profile and also helps universities reach the right kind of students. Students can interact with other peers, seniors, and even universities to make the best decision for their career.

Regarding the business model, Jain says, “We plan to monetize all three stakeholders on the platform: students, universities and service providers. On the current platform, as a free user, there are some restrictions for students, while our premium paid services provide students with personalized help. We provide premium users with full help along the way.

It helps universities market and reach students. And the third is the service provider. “When a student moves from one country to another, a new identity is created in a different country, which requires many services such as loans, forex, insurance, housing. We work with many international lenders, lenders, banks and providers, ”he adds.

The tech-based startup started off with less than Rs 10,000 for website hosting. It has links with 150 international universities in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Hong Kong. Also, it has registered over 10 lakhs of students so far and it plans to add around 10 more lakhs of students to the platform this year. Yocket has even helped over 3,000 students and professionals finance loans totaling Rs 1,200 crore to study abroad by partnering with 10 educational loan providers in various categories.

“Despite the pandemic, fall 2021 was our biggest contribution to date, both in terms of student enrollments and student loan assistance. It is not surprising that nearly 70 to 80% of students choose to benefit from loans for their studies in the United States, Canada and Europe, the average amount of sanctioned loans being Rs 40 lakh ”, adds Jain.

Recently, Yocket announced plans to hire 500 employees by the end of March 2022 and has a team of over 350 employees. “In 2019, we launched an end-to-end personalized counseling service called Yocket Premium to help students every step of the way, from home to college. Today we have accomplished premium users from over 100 cities. We have students not only from India but also from outside India. We aim to add at least 50,000 premium users to our platform, ”says Jain.