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AI agents that automate administrative work across college campuses.
Risely AI has raised $500K across 1 funding round.
Key people at Risely AI.
Risely AI was founded in 2025 by Sadia Saifuddin (Founder) and Shahryar Abbasi (Founder) and Danial Asif (Founder).
Risely AI has raised $500K in total across 1 funding round.
Risely’s AI agents will form the new operating system for universities, improving retention, staff productivity, and efficiency. Our platform integrates directly into existing university systems (SIS, LMS, CRM), learns each institution’s unique workflows, and deploys specialized AI agents. This dramatically reduces the $735 billion universities spend annually on administrative labor, expands staff capacity without increasing headcount, and improves the student experience.
This hasn't been done before because university workflows require nuanced, autonomous judgment, exactly what agentic AI was designed to solve. Our team uniquely combines deep expertise in higher education, enterprise-scale AI, and regulated enterprise sales.
Sadia previously built Salesforce’s Education Cloud from scratch, creating the core Student Information System widely used across higher education. She deeply understands university operations and maintains trusted relationships with hundreds of higher-ed CIOs and Provosts.
Danial was one of DoorDash’s earliest engineers, where he architected and scaled complex systems from zero to billions of transactions, including their search, recommendation, and Voice AI platforms. He knows how to build robust AI solutions that reliably perform at enterprise scale.
Shahryar was a GM at Airwallex, where he built the entire Americas business from 0 to 1 and drove 11x revenue growth. He’s also a master closer, single-handedly securing over $17M in enterprise deals at NerdWallet. He’s a relentless startup executor with deep expertise launching and scaling go-to-market machines in highly regulated industries.
We launched six weeks ago and are already at $8k MRR, growing 55% week-over-week -- one of the fastest ramps ever in higher ed. Universities urgently need solutions that expand labor capacity and efficiency, especially as they face unprecedented budget pressure and staffing shortages.
With unmatched buyer access, deep technical expertise, and rapid early traction, we are perfectly positioned to own this enormous market.
Risely AI was founded in 2025 by Sadia Saifuddin (Founder) and Shahryar Abbasi (Founder) and Danial Asif (Founder).
Risely AI has raised $500K in total across 1 funding round.
Risely AI's investors include Connect Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Stride VC, Y Combinator.
Key people at Risely AI.
Risely AI builds AI agents that automate administrative workflows across college campuses, primarily focusing on improving student retention and operational efficiency. Their flagship product, the AI Advisor, integrates with university systems such as Student Information Systems (SIS), Learning Management Systems (LMS), and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms to unify student data, flag at-risk students early, draft personalized outreach, and generate tailored success plans in natural language. This automation allows academic advisors and staff to focus more on direct student support rather than manual data processing, significantly reducing administrative burdens and improving student outcomes.
Risely serves higher education institutions including private colleges, large public university systems, and online universities. By streamlining repetitive tasks and providing real-time, actionable insights, Risely AI helps campuses save up to 40% on administrative costs, accelerate response times from days to seconds, and boost enrollment and retention through proactive student engagement[1][2][4][5].
Risely AI was co-founded by Sadia, Shahryar, and Danial, with Sadia bringing deep experience from seven years at Salesforce leading Education Cloud product development, including launching a next-generation Student Information System used globally. The idea emerged from recognizing the inefficiencies academic advisors face in manually identifying and supporting at-risk students due to fragmented and clunky campus systems. Early traction came from deploying their AI Advisor in diverse institutions, demonstrating improved retention and personalized student support at scale without increasing staff headcount[4][5].
Risely AI rides the growing trend of AI-driven automation and personalized support in education technology, addressing the critical need for scalable student success solutions amid rising enrollment and retention challenges. The timing is favorable as universities increasingly seek to leverage AI to unify disparate data systems and deliver proactive, personalized interventions without expanding staff. Market forces such as digital transformation in higher education, demand for data-driven decision-making, and pressure to reduce operational costs work strongly in Risely’s favor. By creating an interoperable AI layer that sits atop existing campus systems, Risely is shaping a new "system of work" that enhances institutional efficiency and student outcomes, influencing the broader edtech ecosystem toward AI-enabled administrative automation[1][4][5].
Risely AI is poised to expand beyond its AI Advisor product, with plans to launch additional AI agents such as an AI Sidekick for students, AI Registrar, and AI Research Admin, deepening integration with campus workflows. Future trends shaping their journey include increasing adoption of AI in education, growing demand for personalized student experiences, and heightened focus on data privacy and security. As Risely evolves, it could become a foundational AI operating system for universities, significantly transforming how campuses manage student success and administrative operations, ultimately enabling more students to thrive while optimizing institutional resources[4][5].
Risely AI’s vision of an AI sidekick for every student and AI agents automating critical campus functions ties back to its mission of reducing administrative burdens and improving student outcomes through intelligent automation.
Risely AI has raised $500K across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $500K Seed in June 2025.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 1, 2025 | $500K Seed | Connect Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Stride VC, Y Combinator |