Rajan Anandan invests undisclosed sum in Stoodnt.com

PUNE: Palo Alto-based education start-up Stoodnt – which helps students aspiring to study abroad by connecting them with high-quality college admission counsellors, and providing guidance, insights and online tools – has raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Rajan Anandan, Vice-President, Google, South-East Asia and India. The company said that the funds would be used to enhance the user experience, product development and to expand the user base. Apart from Anandan, the company has raised seed funding from other angel investors and senior executives in India and the US.

Stoodnt was set up a few months ago by Ajay Singh and Yuri Punj, both Harvard Business School alumni along with software entrepreneur Sena Palanisami. It has just started operations in India, its first international market, and has appointed Ramdas Sunder Managing Director India and South Asia. Sunder has worked with companies like Pitney Bowes, Freescale Semiconductor and McKinsey Consulting in the past. “The college admission market is highly fragmented, low-tech and fraught with fraud, biased advice and quality issues in international markets. The focus of our platform is to provide insights, online help and college admission expert guidance by leveraging data, technology and people. We are delighted to have someone like Rajan be associated with this opportunity to make a difference in the future of millions of aspiring students,” said co-founder Ajay Singh.

At present, the platform offers guidance for undergraduate, graduate and MBA admissions to the US and Canada and intends on adding UK and Australia next.