When Senan Khawaja applied to Stanford, he worked with a private college counselor. That access shaped his understanding of what admissions support can offer when done well. Following admission, he helped more than one hundred applicants navigate the process. Most of them lacked access to advising that addressed their needs in a clear, structured way (EdTech Chronicle, 2024). Khawaja recognized that those gaps in access were not random. They followed income, geography, and school funding. He began developing a plan to build something more scalable (LinkedIn, 2025).
In 2022, after exploring GPT-3’s capacity for personalized recommendations, he partnered with Saeed Naeem to build the first version of Kollegio (EdTech Chronicle, 2024). They launched the platform in 2024. The goal was to provide AI-based admissions support to students around the world, without charging them anything to use it (PR Newswire, 2025). What started as a firsthand understanding of inequality became the foundation for a platform built to address it at scale.
Mismatched Systems Hinder Student Opportunity
Kollegio launched in 2024 as a platform offering free, AI-based admissions guidance to students worldwide (PR Newswire, 2025). Rather than relying on overburdened school counseling systems, the platform offers personalized admissions tools students can use independently (EdTech Chronicle, 2024). The team focused early development on replicating advising outcomes through structured data and algorithmic matching (EdTech Chronicle, 2024). Kollegio’s first deployments were tested across varied student groups, including those without prior access to formal counseling support (PR Newswire, 2025).
California’s student-to-counselor ratio stands at 443 to 1. The national average is 376 to 1, far above the American School Counselor Association’s recommendation of 250 to 1 (PR Newswire, 2025). That ratio limits how much support counselors can offer, especially at public schools with large student populations. Most students enter the application cycle without knowing how to evaluate institutional fit or long-term outcomes (EdTech Chronicle, 2024).
Kollegio lets students create detailed academic and personal profiles that the platform uses to match them with colleges. The system evaluates more than academic performance, factoring in stated interests, personal experiences, and long-term goals (EdTech Chronicle, 2024). Its recommendations are based on alignment across multiple areas, including academic programs, campus values, and community structure. This approach helps students prioritize institutions that match their stated preferences and intended outcomes.
Colleges face their own challenges. Institutions spend an average of $526 per student annually to recruit, often through broad marketing campaigns that don’t target the students most likely to enroll (EdTech Chronicle, 2024). Kollegio enables a more efficient process. Colleges using the platform can connect directly with students who are already aligned with their mission, academic offerings, and community focus (ASU+GSV Summit, 2025).
Early Traction Strategies
In April 2025, Kollegio announced it had raised $2.8 million in seed funding. The round was led by Reach Capital and included participation from JFFVentures, ECMC Group, and Tuesday Capital (PR Newswire, 2025). The investment followed early user growth and traction across student communities in the U.S. and abroad. With this funding, the company began expanding its outreach to both institutions and students at scale.
James Kim, a partner at Reach Capital and a former Yale admissions officer, spoke publicly about the need for change in the industry. He pointed to the way traditional private counseling services tend to serve higher-income families who can afford personalized support. In his view, Kollegio offered an alternative model that delivered that same level of individualized guidance without cost barriers (PR Newswire, 2025). The investment aligned with Reach Capital’s focus on solutions that expand access in education.
Despite early support, the platform was not universally welcomed. Some educators raised concerns about the use of AI in a process traditionally driven by human advisors. Their skepticism focused on whether AI could fully account for the individual circumstances, lived experiences, and context that make each student unique (EdTech Chronicle, 2024). Others questioned whether algorithmic advising might encourage students to take shortcuts or rely too heavily on automation.
Kollegio responded by building transparency into its system. The team worked with school partners to show how the platform could assist rather than replace human counselors. Educators were invited to test the tools and offer input during development. Over time, the company gained broader support across the education community. In 2024, EdTech Chronicle named Kollegio “Best in Education” and the company was invited to present on the main stage at ASU+GSV 2025 (EdTech Chronicle, 2024; ASU+GSV Summit, 2025).
How Students and Schools Are Using the Platform
Since its launch in August 2024, Kollegio has been used by students in all 50 U.S. states and over 190 countries (PR Newswire, 2025). Students have signed up through school networks, peer referrals, and independent searches across a range of regions and school types. Access is not limited by time zone, region, or school affiliation. Students engage with the platform independently or through referrals, often after learning about it through school networks or peer recommendations.
Kollegio currently targets more than 3,000 colleges, many of which are overlooked in traditional recruitment models (EdTech Chronicle, 2024). These institutions include regional public universities, liberal arts colleges, and specialized programs that may not have the budgets to compete with larger schools in national campaigns. By allowing these schools to view matched student profiles based on shared interests and academic focus, Kollegio introduces a channel for connection that bypasses generalized outreach.
Students using the platform report more focused application strategies that reflect their personal goals, stated interests, and program-level preferences (EdTech Chronicle, 2024). More than 20 percent of users spend over one hour per session interacting with tools such as school matching, essay feedback, and planning checklists (EdTech Chronicle, 2024). Engagement has grown steadily through word-of-mouth and product utility, without paid marketing campaigns or promotional partnerships (EdTech Chronicle, 2024).
Team Structure and the Thinking That Drives Development
Senan Khawaja studied econometrics and development economics at Stanford University and completed additional coursework in international trade and economic history at the University of Oxford (LinkedIn, 2025). He worked at the World Bank in Washington, DC, where his focus was on data analysis related to transportation infrastructure in developing regions. He later joined the Lisbon Council in Brussels, contributing to research on digital infrastructure and public sector innovation across Europe (LinkedIn, 2025). These roles involved working with international datasets to support decision-making in public education, mobility, and policy design.
Saeed Naeem, Kollegio’s Co-founder and CTO, studied applied mathematics and computer science at the University of California, Berkeley (Crunchbase, 2025; LinkedIn, 2025). He worked as a software engineering intern at The Modern Data Company, where he designed data pipelines for machine learning deployment using AWS and built models for schema classification across large datasets. His earlier research included time-series forecasting and real-time prediction modeling during internships at Rimble.io, and he also served as a teaching assistant for data science courses at Berkeley (LinkedIn, 2025; The Org, 2025). Naeem was selected for the AI Founder Series at StartX, where Kollegio received mentorship and early-stage support (Crunchbase, 2025).
At Kollegio, the team is composed of engineers, educators, and researchers committed to building a platform that improves access to higher education. They prioritize equitable outcomes through refinement of the platform’s AI, which is tuned using proprietary data gathered from user behavior, application patterns, and engagement metrics (EdTech Chronicle, 2024). Platform development is shaped through direct collaboration with counselors and education partners, who provide input on functionality and user experience. The company maintains an education-first approach, grounding technical work in real-world application and institutional alignment (PR Newswire, 2025; EdTech Chronicle, 2024).
The Buildout Ahead for AI-Driven Admissions
Kollegio has outlined plans to serve as the core infrastructure for global college access. Its leadership is focused on building tools that allow students and institutions to engage through personalized pathways based on verified inputs and tracked outcomes (EdTech Chronicle, 2024). The platform’s long-term model involves deeper integration with high schools, universities, and nonprofit access organizations. To support this, Kollegio is scaling its technical and operations teams alongside an expansion in institutional partnerships (PR Newswire, 2025).
Development of the AI system remains a top priority. The team is actively refining how the platform identifies compatibility between students and schools, using real-time engagement data and institutional program details to improve accuracy (EdTech Chronicle, 2024). This includes optimizing matching models to respond to student profiles that contain both traditional and nontraditional academic indicators. These refinements are tested against feedback from counselors and school administrators to ensure practical relevance.
Institutions working with Kollegio are adopting tools that provide real-time visibility into applicant readiness, program fit, and timing across decision cycles (PR Newswire, 2025). Students interact with automated workflows tied to application milestones, scholarship tracking, and essay development, reducing friction across the admissions funnel (EdTech Chronicle, 2024). These features are designed for scale and continuity, integrating directly into existing institutional pipelines. Backed by a growing user base and fresh capital, the team is now accelerating product rollouts and expanding strategic partnerships with colleges in key domestic and international markets (PR Newswire, 2025).
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References
ASU+GSV Summit. (2025). Senan Khawaja – Speaker profile. https://www.asugsvsummit.com/speakers/senan-khawaja
Crunchbase. (2025). Senan Khawaja – Person profile. https://www.crunchbase.com/person/senan-khawaja
Crunchbase. (2025). Saeed Naeem – Person profile. https://www.crunchbase.com/person/saeed-naeem
EdTechChronicle. (2024, October 3). Five questions for Kollegio founder Senan Khawaja. https://edtechchronicle.com/five-questions-for-kollegio-founder-senan-khawaja/
Kollegio. (2025, April 24). Kollegio announces $2.8MM seed round to deliver personalized college access coaching to millions of students globally [Press release]. PR Newswire. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/kollegio-announces-2-8mm-seed-round-to-deliver-personalized-college-access-coaching-to-millions-of-students-globally-302436144.html
LinkedIn. (2025). Saeed Naeem – Co-founder & CTO at Kollegio. https://www.linkedin.com/in/saeednaeem/
LinkedIn. (2025). Senan Khawaja – Co-founder & CEO at Kollegio. https://www.linkedin.com/in/senankhawaja/
The Org. (2025). Saeed Naeem – Kollegio AI. https://theorg.com/org/kollegio-ai/org-chart/saeed-naeem
