StudyFree, an EdTech platform that connects students with international educational opportunities via a community-driven B2C SaaS model, has raised $3 million in seed funding led by I2BF Global Ventures, TMT Investments, and Techstars.
The round was also joined by PandaDoc CEO Mikita Mikado and Google’s ex-director of product, Andrey Doronichev.
The San Francisco-based startup plans to use the fresh funds for marketing and platform development, to attract new members to the community, and expand into new markets.
Founded in 2018 by Dasha Kroshkina, StudyFree helps students and alumni to enroll in universities and graduate schools internationally, by listing scholarships and grants. The startup claims that international students using its platform have now received scholarships and grants worth $10.3 million to study in universities across the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia. The platform currently has a user base of 90,000 students from over 100 countries.
StudyFree allows students to evaluate their admissions chances and receive recommendations on improving their admissions portfolio, get access to a database of 30,000+ programs with scholarship opportunities, and a step-by-step admissions plan with actual deadlines. StudyFree also provides samples of all admission documents and video instructions on how to prepare them, all the necessary resources for admission and relocation, and also a personal mentor to help students get it all done effortlessly.
Dasha Kroshkina, Founder & CEO of StudyFree, said, “As someone who was born in a small town, but managed to study internationally, I know more than most how important it is for everyone in the world to have this opportunity. We estimate the international overseas education market is 15 million students per year.”
The company believes that India is a fast-developing country that holds much potential, and that when its students get the opportunity to gain a good education abroad, they will come back to their home country with state-of-the-art knowledge and will develop the market, applying their top-quality education.
Mikita Mikado, CEO of PandaDoc, said, “StudyFree has become a leading expert in international university admissions with a proven 98% success rate for its students over the last 3 years. It changed the adviser market, not only by digitizing the advising process throughout the application process but also by making human capital and community the foundation of its product.”
The startup had earlier announced an expansion to five developing markets to allow international students to access scholarships and grants for global education opportunities.
StudyFree had raised $30,000 in September last year in a seed round led by Seedstars, Charlie Graham-Brown. With the latest round, the company has now received a total of $3.6 million in funding.
