Ed-tech startup Stoodnt gets funding from Google's Rajan Anandan

Stoodnt, an educational-technology firm which facilitates interaction between students and admission counsellors or educational institutions, has raised $300,000 (Rs 2 crore) in a seed funding round led by Google India managing director Rajan Anandan, the startup's founder told TechCircle.

The company will use the funds mainly to enhance product capability and user experience and to expand its sales and marketing teams, Ajay Singh said. He didn't reveal the names of the other investors.

California, US-based Stoodnt Inc entered India, its first international market, this year. It has an office in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

Singh founded the company last year along with Yuri Punj, Sena Palanisami and Ramdas Sunder. Singh had earlier worked with American Express, Cendant, Intel and Booz Allen. Palanisami, who is credited to have set up HP's software operations in India, is also the founder of San Jose-based ViSolve, the engineering arm of Stoodnt.

Punj, an MBA graduate from Harvard Business School, had worked with UBS Investment Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Schroders and M&T Bank in the past. Sunder has worked as a consultant with companies such as McKinsey, Freescale and Pitney Bowes.

Besides connecting students, with counsellors and colleges, the platform claims it gives them access to admission insights and admission tools.

The company claims it has offered its services to more than 1,000 students so far. As per its website, it has helped students get admitted in world-renowned institutions such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale and Cornell. The services offered include college selection, application, interview preparation, financial aid and visa guidance.

The company competes with the likes of mycollegesabroad.com, which provides consulting services to students planning to study abroad, and CollegeDekho, which last year raised funding from Jaipur-based Girnar Software Pvt. Ltd, the company behind auto portal CarDekho and BikeDekho.

Stoodnt is among several ed-tech startups that have caught investors' attention this year. Last week, ed-tech startup Byju's raised $50 million (Rs 332 crore) in a round co-led by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, marking the first investment of the philanthropic foundation of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan in Asia.

Prozo.com, an online marketplace for buying and selling study material, recently raised its pre-Series A round of funding from a London-based venture capital firm and two affluent individuals.

Last month, ed-tech platform Unacademy raised Rs 6.7 crore from a clutch of investors including Flipkart co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

Among other ed-tech startups, Oliveboard has raised funding from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. In late February, ed-tech firm Carveniche Technologies Pvt. Ltd secured angel funding from Calcutta Angels, Lead Angels and a bunch of wealthy individuals.

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