To coincide with its 10th anniversary, Prodigy takes a look at its own impact on international students globally.
Released today, international postgraduate loans firm Prodigy Finance has launched a retrospective at the impact its loans have had on the international student community since it was founded ten years ago.
As a provider of access to cross-border financial services for young talent, Prodigy Finance’s unique credit model assesses applications based on variables such as projected earnings rather than historical credit. The platform raised $40m in a Series C equity round last year, in addition to a $200m debt facility.
The “Ten Years of Impact: Impact Report 2018” from Prodigy shows that in ten years, the firm has funded over 9,900 students from over 120 nationalities, lending a total of $500m. Students from emerging markets make up 80 per cent of that number.
Some 44 per cent of those students have seen their state salary increase by more than 50 per cent after completing postgraduate study, and a further 77 per cent of students who used Prodigy Finance believe that their degree has increased their ability to obtain or retain a job internationally.
Indeed, the efforts of Prodigy seem to have had a positive impact on both an international and domestic level. Over 60 per cent of students funded have returned to their home country post-study, thereby limiting the argument for international study creating a “brain drain” on developing countries’ resources.
However the student lender still has a way to go: of the students it has funded, just 29 per cent have been female. Though Prodigy has done much to improve access to education for students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds, the increasing need to do more to rectify the gender balance in many industries, including tech, business and finance, is obviously still apparent.
On a more positive note for the firm, 60 per cent of its former students have said they are interested in investing in Prodigy in the future.
“Quality education is a key component of what allows talented people to be employable globally and take on jobs anywhere they would like, but also for people coming from lower-income households to break-out from the typical social stratification,” said Cameron Stevens, founder and CEO of Prodigy Finance.
“The urgency of ensuring equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education is anchored in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals which we are dedicated to helping achieve.”
