Martin Basiri Built ApplyBoard to $3.2B, Then Started Over: Inside Passage and Its C$40M Seed

September 21, 2026

TL;DR: Martin Basiri came to Canada from Iran on a University of Waterloo scholarship, barely speaking English, and co-founded ApplyBoard, the platform that helps international students apply to schools abroad. ApplyBoard raised US$300 million in 2021 at a US$3.2 billion valuation — roughly C$4 billion — and has helped over two million students. Basiri stepped down as CEO in 2022 and was succeeded by his brother Meti Basiri. Instead of stopping, he founded Passage, which raised a C$40 million seed round led by Drive Capital, one of the largest seed rounds in Canadian history. Passage matches international students and immigrants to Canada's labor shortages — nursing, healthcare, trades, STEM — and, through a sister company, Passage Funding, lends them the money at very low interest so that being poor is not what keeps them out. Its public goal, with a countdown clock on its own website, is that by 2030 no one in the top 1% of ability is blocked from studying in Canada, the US, the UK or Australia for lack of money — which Basiri estimates requires over $50 billion of lending per year. He told the story on stage at SaaS North, on The Product Market Fit Show.

What is Passage?

Passage is two things working together. The software platform matches international students and immigrants to the Canadian degrees and trades the country is actually short of. Passage Funding provides the financing — low-interest loans rather than grants.

The choice of loans over philanthropy is a deliberate market observation.

"The amount of philanthropy money in the world is very small and like, but the amount of money that is willing to get a return, but they also want to be social cause is a lot." — Martin Basiri, Passage

Donated money runs out once. Capital that earns a modest return can recycle, which is the only way to reach the scale the mission requires.

The most striking part of the program is its work with Afghan women who were barred from education under the Taliban — medical students, AI students, computer science students. Passage funded them, they obtained visas from Pakistan, and, as Basiri said on the show, the first group had already arrived in Canada.

"Just because you're a woman, you get kicked out of the school." — Martin Basiri, Passage

Key stat: Passage published a 60-month countdown timer on its own website for its 2030 goal. Basiri's stated reason: so the company fails publicly if it misses.

"So we publicly fail if we don't achieve." — Martin Basiri, Passage

He put the odds of hitting that goal at about 1% when they started and roughly 10% about 15 months later.

Who is Martin Basiri?

Basiri grew up in a lower-middle-class family in Iran with two educator parents. He opened a computer shop at 13, started coding at 14 after an uncle visiting from Canada showed him BASIC, and learned circuit design from his electrical-engineer father. His parents periodically cut the power to the house to get him off the computer, because his eyesight was deteriorating.

The University of Waterloo gave him a full scholarship for a master's in engineering. He arrived alone, then brought his brothers and the rest of his family.

ApplyBoard started as a way to make rent, not a company. He and his brothers had been helping other international students with applications for small fees.

"I said, why don't we make a website? To help international students, maybe one student a month to make a thousand dollars. So it's enough time to invent the next thing. And that became the invention." — Martin Basiri, ApplyBoard

The mission arrived two or three years in, when the first students Basiri had helped reached Canada and started talking to him as customers.

"They didn't say what a great website you have. They didn't say, I really like that feature. They were like, man, you've changed our life." — Martin Basiri, ApplyBoard

"We believe education is a right, not a privilege." — Martin Basiri, Passage

Key stat: By Basiri's own accounting on the show, ApplyBoard brought about 0.5% of Canada's total population into the country as students, and those students generate more than 0.6% of national GDP, rising toward 0.7% after five years.

How much have ApplyBoard and Passage raised?

Verified as of September 2026:

ApplyBoard: US$300 million raised in 2021 at a valuation of US$3.2 billion, or roughly C$4 billion — the figure Basiri used on the show. He was CEO from 2015 to 2022 and was succeeded by his brother Meti Basiri, a change the company disclosed in early 2023.
Passage: a C$40 million seed round led by Drive Capital, among the largest seed rounds ever raised in Canada.

Basiri also turned down an exit. In 2018 he had a way to sell ApplyBoard that would have paid him roughly $100 million. He said no, stayed, and grew the company an order of magnitude further.

Why a $40M seed round funded a 20-person company

The most counterintuitive decision at Passage is what Basiri did not do with the money: hire. At the time of the interview the company had roughly 20-odd employees, and investors kept pointing out that the seed round was largely untouched.

There are two reasons, and both are about risk.

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"If I put the smartest people that are like ex founders or they were like a founder type of people. And if I can give them enough room for having the authority and the, what they feel they own the problem. But if they're very smart, but at the same time, if you put enough hard problems, they do magic." — Martin Basiri, Passage

The operating model came from his last two years at ApplyBoard, where a team called ApplyX ran that way.

"We are a company that has a lot of risk, right? So if we can keep the burn as low as possible, then the chance of success for the company becomes higher." — Martin Basiri, Passage

Passage carries business model risk and immigration policy risk already. Adding operational risk on top — the kind that comes from scaling an organization before you need one — would stack a third failure mode on a company that does not need it. The team works five days a week in the office and eats dinner together at seven.

The Audi story: how ApplyBoard landed its first engineer

Before any of the valuations, Basiri needed one software developer to quit IBM. The engineer was willing to help part time. Basiri did not think a company could be built part time.

He had a written-off Audi TT convertible he had bought in the US for $7,000, which looked like a $40,000 or $50,000 car.

"So I told the guys, what's your life expense? It's like a $2,500 bills. So like, listen, you see that car. If I can't pay your salary, I sell my car to you." — Martin Basiri, ApplyBoard

"He probably thought it's a year's salary. It was just a three months salary at best." — Martin Basiri, ApplyBoard

The engineer joined full time.

Key lessons from Martin Basiri's playbook

1. Let the mission find you. ApplyBoard began as a way to fund inventing. It became a calling only when customers said it had changed their lives. 2. Make the problem harder when you get comfortable. Basiri's stated reason for leaving a $3.2 billion company was that the next problem needed someone who understood technology, immigration and finance at once. 3. Design the funding model for scale, not for sentiment. There is not enough philanthropic capital in the world to move 50 billion dollars a year. There is plenty of return-seeking capital with a social mandate. 4. Publish the deadline. A countdown clock on your own site is an accountability device that cannot be quietly retired. 5. A big round is not permission to hire. Ex-founders with real ownership, a low burn rate, and no organizational risk stacked on top of the business risk. 6. Close your first hire with whatever collateral you actually have. A $7,000 car that looked like $50,000 was enough.

"I am the happiest when I'm at the edge of failure. When I'm doing something that is so hard that I'm in an extreme amount of stress that things are going to fail very soon." — Martin Basiri, Passage

"Building a startup is not the game of your brain, it's a game of your heart." — Martin Basiri, Passage

FAQ: Martin Basiri, ApplyBoard and Passage

Q: Who is Martin Basiri? A: An Iranian-Canadian entrepreneur who co-founded ApplyBoard, served as its CEO from 2015 to 2022, and now runs Passage. He came to Canada on a University of Waterloo scholarship for a master's in engineering.

Q: What is Passage? A: A Canadian company that matches international students and immigrants to fields where Canada has shortages — healthcare, nursing, trades and STEM — and, through Passage Funding, lends them money at very low interest rates so they can study. Its stated goal is that by 2030 no one in the top 1% of ability is blocked from studying abroad for lack of money.

Q: How much did Passage raise? A: A C$40 million seed round led by Drive Capital, one of the largest seed rounds in Canadian history.

Q: How much is ApplyBoard worth? A: ApplyBoard raised US$300 million in 2021 at a US$3.2 billion valuation, roughly C$4 billion. Basiri referred to it as a $4 billion company on the show.

Q: Why did Martin Basiri leave ApplyBoard? A: He wanted a harder problem. He argues the financing side of global education needs someone who understands technology, immigration and finance together, and that very few people are positioned to attempt it. His brother Meti Basiri succeeded him as CEO.

Q: How many people work at Passage? A: Roughly 20 at the time of the interview, despite the C$40 million raise — a deliberate choice to keep burn low and reduce the company's overall risk.

Sources: Listen to the Full Founder Story

Martin Basiri, Founder & CEO of Passage, Co-Founder of ApplyBoard — arrived in Canada on a scholarship with little English, built the world's largest international student platform to a US$3.2 billion valuation, turned down a $100 million exit along the way, then left to lend students the money they need to follow him. Listen to the full interview.