Mobile-first learning management platform, Byndr has raised US $700,000 seed funding from the Education Design Studio (Ed-tech accelerator at the University of Pennsylvania), Ben Franklin Technology Partners, and a group of angel investors. The firm will utilize these funds to expand its sales and development team and grow the product scope in terms of giving more access to educational content for students and providing more administrative features for colleges.
Since its inception in March of 2015, Byndr is now used by more than 50 top colleges in India and has a total installed base of over 50,000 students on its platform, claims company. The founding team (Joseph Freed, Praveen Vangeepuram and Marc Garabedian in Philadelphia and Satish Nampally and Prashanthi Vangeepuram in Hyderabad) noticed that in many emerging markets students in higher education had limited access to educational resources that were mobile-based, and a majority of students were not connected to their colleges on any online platform. Byndr was incepted to plug this gap to become a single point of access for students in higher education to connect to their college and to educational resources.
The app is now being used by colleges ranging from small set-ups to those amongst the 100 most prestigious institutions and universities in India, including Osmania College of Engineering and Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology.
Commenting on raising the seed round of funds, Joseph Freed, Co-founder & CEO said, “In 2017 it is projected that 80 per cent of the internet users in India will be mobile. So the only way to truly create a single point of access for students in mobile-dependent markets like India is with a mobile-first product. With Byndr, students stay engaged and connected to educational resources outside the classroom, enabling the concept of anytime and anywhere learning with a fast and light platform. This round of funding will allow us to accelerate expansion and continue providing easy-to- use, and mobile-first products for all stakeholders in higher education.”
Commenting on Byndr's traction and market fit, Praveen Vangeepuram, Co-founder and CTO said, "We are very encouraged by the response from our users so far. Our mobile first approach is working, our users like the product and want more from it. This seed round will not only help us grow our user base, but also enable us to continue iterating our product to make it more useful to our students, teachers and colleges."
Bobbi Kurshan, Executive Director of Academic Innovations at The University of Pennsylvania GSE, and Chairman of the Education Design Studio, which participated in this round, said, “Byndr is changing the LMS model. It is creating a solution for emerging economies with lack of persistent internet, lower cost points and need for a lightweight solution. The new funding will be used to support and continue to grow the excellent team and to help expand the impact of this unique mobile solution across India and other emerging edtech ecosystems”.
