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Byndr raises Rs 4.7 crore in seed funding from Education Design Studio

Byndr, a mobile-based learning management platform, has raised $700,000, or about Rs 4.7 crore, in seed funding from the Education Design Studio, an ed-tech accelerator at the University of Pennsylvania, Ben Franklin Technology Partners, and a group of angel investors.

The Hyderabad and Philadelphia-based company said it will utilise the funds to expand its sales and development team and grow the product scope in terms of giving students access to more educational content and providing more administrative features for colleges.

“This round of funding will allow us to accelerate expansion and continue providing mobile-first products for all stakeholders in higher education,” said Joseph Freed, CEO of Byndr. “With Byndr, students stay engaged and connected to educational resources outside the classroom,” he said.

Through Byndr, students can have access to grades and attendance, and have conversation with teachers while colleges can use the app to communicate to the student community.

The startup presently has around 50 colleges on its platform. For the first three months, the colleges can use the app for free and then they have to pay a flat fee.

“We are planning to roll out more educational resources like test preparation and soft skills in the future,” Freed said. Byndr was launched in March 2015 by a founding team consisting of Joseph Freed, Praveen Vangeepuram and Marc Garabedian in Philadelphia and Satish Nampally and Prashanthi Vangeepuram in Hyderabad.

“Byndr is creating a solution for emerging economies with lack of persistent internet, lower cost points and need for a lightweight solution,” said Bobbi Kurshan, Executive Director of academic innovations at The University of Pennsylvania GSE, and chairman of Education Design Studio, which participated in this round.

Source: The Economic Times