StudyFree, an edtech startup born in Russia in 2018, has just secured $3 million to continue its international expansion. The investor pool includes I2BF Global Ventures and TMT Investments, two funds with Russian connections, Techstars, as well as Andrey Doronichev and Mikita Mikado.
The former, Google’s ex-director of product management, is a figure of the Russian-speaking community of entrepreneurs established in the Valley. The latter is the founder of PandaDoc, a Belarusian unicorn in exile.
Now established in California, StudyFree is an online service that helps applicants increase their chances to get a scholarship and be admitted to educational institutions. Claiming a success rate of 98% for obtaining scholarships, the startuphas allowed thousands of students with no money to study in a top US, Chinese or European university.
StudyFree lists more than 300,000 international study-abroad opportunities for various degrees with scholarships, and claims more than 70,000 student subscribers worldwide.
Mikado was quoted as saying, commenting on the deal : “StudyFree has become a leading expert in international university admissions (…). It’s changed the adviser market, not only by digitizing the advising process throughout the application process, but also by making human capital and community the foundation of its product.”
From personal educational experience to startup success
In a previous interview with East-West Digital News, StudyFree founder Dasha Kroshkina, 29, recalled her own experience: “My personal financial limitations hindered me from fulfilling my dream for international education. I was exactly in the same situation as the students who use our platform today.”
Born in a small Russian town, Kroshkina “dreamt to see the world.” She learned three foreign languages: English, Spanish and Mandarin. After a few years of research and hard work, she managed to win more than $100,000 worth of scholarships and grants to study abroad. Thus, she studied for free in Spain, China (double degree in BA and then top business school in Quant Finance), and the USA (short course at Stanford).
StudyFree was bootstrapped for nearly two years. Kroshkina says she initially put around $300 in the project. “We managed to be cash positive from the first month: this built a solid DNA of making money rather than spending them.”
In May 2020, just after winning Seedstars World 2020, StudyFree raised a $600,000 pre-seed round from international investors. Acrobator VC, the fund launched by Bas Godska and Joachim Laqueur to invest in Western and Eastern Europe, led the round. Seedstars Investment, the Berkeley Skydeck and TechStars NY accelerators, as well as Chris Adelsbach as an individual investor, also participated in the round.
