Roger Hamilton: Yes, great question, because absolutely at the time of the IPO, we had a kind of a two-pronged strategy, which was obviously our organic growth and then the growth through acquisitions. And we’ve always had our internal targets of how we grow split between those two areas. Obviously, the markets have changed now and so we’re in a position right now where it is a biased market when it comes to acquisitions and that there are universities out there, schools out there, that have certification programs already that are up for sale. There is the additional complexity at the moment as well, which is that because of the way the markets are, where things might be in six months, 12-months and what our cash requirements might be in terms of acquisitions.
I think that will change as well. So we’re taking a cautious approach, our very, very first focus given that the market is moving this way, is to make sure that we are positive EBITDA and that we are not overstretching ourselves plus we are proving out the model of the acquisitions where we are creating some really, really great synergies with the current company that we have as well. So yes, we are still going to be continuing on the part of acquisitions. However, we are already seeing, which is good news, a whole way of growing that was not part of our main focus before, which was the number of partners that are now gravitating to us, who really want to use our platform and can be generating significant revenues without all the cost and complexities of acquisitions as well, where they actually are seeing us as their solution to how they can create a global classroom.
So this coming year as we start providing guidance by the end of the year into next year of our growth, we certainly are looking at more of a three-pronged approach now. Why? Yes, there’s going to be the organic growth we’re going to have there’s going to be also acquisitions that we will be looking at, very specifically around where we can be buying over entities, organizations that have certification programs that we can be adding in. And then thirdly, there is a whole area around the partner growth and how we actually are going to be growing by attracting those partners. And I think most who’ve been following us at some time will know, that pretty much every one of the different companies maybe with the exception of university were our partners beforehand.
In fact, Revealed Films has been a partner of ours for several years before they even became potential acquisition for us as well. So we have a whole pipeline of not just acquisitions, but partners that are actually looking to do more with us. We see that as being a really, really big part of our growth going forward. If there was one additional thing that I’d say in terms of our main focus on the acquisition side, obviously, all the acquisitions that we have done so far, all five acquisitions are very education focused in terms of them already delivering their education and now being able to do that with our Edtech and our technology expertise. With the latest Saranjit, who’s come and joined us as CEO of GeniuU, she from UpGrad, which is already a multiple billion dollar business, has seen growth that they have done.
Yes, on the one hand, by acquiring education companies, but on the other hand, acquiring Edtech companies themselves, right? So basically buying over companies that have got a lot of technology expertise that have got great engineers and have got already great platforms or add-ons to our current technology that we can add in as well, so whereas we weren’t looking at those companies so much a year ago, because they were pretty much overpriced, right? All tech companies were very, very highly valued a year ago. We’re now seeing that the actual price of potential acquisitions of technology companies that fit enough model is not only much more attractive, but in some cases, because of their model where they’re burning through cash, it actually could fit much, much better in terms of us being potentially an acquirer of some of those as well.