Alumni networking-based social network, AlmaConnect, has raised an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A funding from Mohandas Pai and Aspiring Minds co-founder Varun Aggarwal.
Delhi-based, AlmaConnect, was founded in February 2011, by Swapnil Khandelwal and Rubish Gupta. It is a social platform based on private alumni networks. The members on AlmaConnect can discover relevant information and form professional relationships on the network. It also aggregates job openings in companies where alumni work and facilitate referrals amongst them.
The startup will utilise the newly raised capital to scale its user base, as well as expand geographically, with US being the primary target.
Speaking on behalf of Mohandas Pai, his son Pranav Pai said, “The best institutions in the world, corporate and educational, put in a lot of effort to meaningfully engage with their alumni over time, and for good reason. A huge component of education and professional life comprises of the relationships and networks that one forms there and grows over time. AlmaConnect is delivering a unique value proposition that helps both alumni and institutions maintain and enhance these relationships.”
Currently, over 200 institutes are using the platform to connect with their alumni including St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, IIT Roorkee, IIM Indore, IIM Ranchi, IIM Udaipur, ISM Dhanbad, XISS, IRMA, Great Lakes, IRMA, DA-IICT, etc. The company is also supported by CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad, and 91Springboard.
Apart from colleges, alums can also initiate networks for their institutes as a free service and currently over 2000 such alumni networks are active on the platform.
The company aims to scale up their user base from 250K to 1 Mn within 6 months. The company is also planning to take the product global and few colleges in Singapore, Malaysia and Mauritius have already signed up on the network.
AlmaConnect was among the top 7 startups that pitched during Inc42’s StartupPulse event Delhi held in July last year.
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