School Places (schoolplaces.com.au), Australia’s first ever private school marketplace, announced its arrival into Malaysia with the backing of OSK Technology Ventures, the venture capital and private equity arm of OSK Berhad.
The expansion into Malaysia will see School Places, an innovative online private school marketplace, assist Malaysian parents and international families in their search for private and international school options for their children in Malaysia or for families relocating to Australia in need of a private school enrolment.
School Places which was launched in Australia three years ago offers a dynamic and personalised service that helps match families to private schools across the gamut of vacancies, at no cost to the parent.
With over 12,000 Australian private school vacancies currently loaded in the School Places system, inventory is constantly growing as new schools come on board and additional vacancies are released by partner schools. With its foray into Malaysia, School Places will now also include Malaysia’s private school and international school vacancies in its inventory.
School Places CEO Natalie Mactier said, “It is a testament to the hard work of our team and the support of our investors that we are taking our brand offshore just three years after launch. OSK Technology Ventures was looking to add to their education sector investments for some time and we are proud to be their first investment in Australia.
“While the School Places consumer website is extremely simple, our purpose built back-end matches real time demand with hidden supply – with inventory from over 200 Australian school campuses at any one time. Our core audience is families who are moving or exploring their school options. The international family market presents some exciting opportunities for growth and it builds our offering for our core target segments.”
Patrick Yee Chee Wai, Executive Director of OSK Ventures International Berhad said: “We take a cautious approach to selecting investments and conducted extensive due diligence before investing in School Places. We are impressed by the business model, the ability for it to be expanded into new sectors and markets and the calibre of its Board and management team.
“In Malaysia, the number of students enrolled in its 170 English-medium international schools has increased by 146 per cent in the last five years from 29,000 students to 71,500 students. The rising popularity in Malaysia of English-medium international schools has resulted from education sector reforms in 2012 that removed limits on foreign ownership in international schools, and the 40% enrolment cap for Malaysian students and introduced tax incentives.
“We believe School Places will benefit both Malaysian schools and parents and will elevate the current school placement experience in our local markets. We are positive that School Places is poised for success in our region given the stellar economic growth and increasing demand for private and international schools,” said Yee.
While the size of OSK Technology Ventures’ investment is not disclosed, it is now School Places’ third largest investor behind key Australian based investors, Square Peg Capital and Tambrad. School Places in Malaysia will be run via a wholly owned subsidiary based in Kuala Lumpur and staffed by local employees.