Companies cash in on US universities' video interview requirements

The company initially used a first round of funding of $50,000 that came entirely from the founders. Two years ago, the company received another round of investment from Shunwei, a venture capital firm set up by Lei Jun, the founder of technology group Xiaomi Corp. Since then, the company has been growing organically.

Nowadays, Vericant has official agreements with around 80 boarding schools and 30-40 universities, which means that they have included the Vericant videos as part of their admission process and pay a service fee for its use.

For schools, the set service amounts to $1,500 per year while students pay an interview fee of around $300.

This year, the company said it is expected to handle 20,000 applications, without specifying the exact number of applicants using the service. And there is still room for growth.

"In North America, the video is not the norm but it is a trend. We are seeing that more and more people are talking about it and they are being more open to the concept," explained Sivan.

Although the company's headquarters is based in Beijing, they work in 13 cities across China as well as in other locations globally.

The company has also personnel in Canada and the US to deal directly with the academic centers.

The challenge now is to scale the business by introducing special software that will allow it to increase the number of interviews and reduce costs.

"If we really want to grow big, we need to integrate more technology," said Sivan.