San Francisco based scholarship startup Raise.Me has secured $12m in Series A funding led by RedPoint. Raise.Me offers 'micro-scholarships' towards college tuition based on students' achievements through high school.
Preston Silverman got the idea for Raise.me, a startup that has created a clever new way for students to receive financial aid, while working as a volunteer at a school for untouchables in India called Shanti Bhavan. Taking a break from his job at a strategic consultancy that focused on emerging markets, Silverman was convinced that the educational system in the U.S. was just as broken as the one he was seeing in India and realized there had to be a better way. For him, the issue was a misalignment of interests and incentives. Everyone knows that a college student these days may graduate with a near-crippling amount of debt — on average about $37,000 per student.