Youni develops a platform that provides advice to students looking to study at universities abroad. The company has a team of 24 education consultants, developers, marketing specialists and experts in international business development. It was established by entrepreneur Andrei Nicolae in 2017.
The expansion to the two Central Asia countries entailed EUR80,000 investments, most of which went to operations, HR and marketing.
“We chose to expand operations to the two former Soviet countries because we noticed a significant number of high school and university students with international aspirations, who are faced with information and process barriers,” said Stefan Tapescu, COO and co-founder of Youni.
“At the same time, there is a lot of interest in these countries for studying in Romania. To open these markets, we are looking to hire Russian speakers who live in Romania to help us provide our services in an effective and culturally relevant manner.”
This academic year, the company managed to secure more than $15 million worth of scholarships from universities in the United States and Europe and in the previous academic year had a 100% acceptance rate of the students it advised to their universities of choice.
Youni has received EUR1.2 million investment since 2020, mainly from Early Game Venture (EGV). Other investors are Simple Capital and Angel Investors.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)