Mobile platform for students to highlight achievements.
By Raif Karerat
ZeeMee, a startup that wants to help enrich the college application process, announced last week that it had raised a Series A round of $5.8 million.
The investment was led by BlueRun Ventures, which was an early investor in companies like Paypal and Waze.
Jonathan Ebinger, a BlueRun Ventures general partner, told TechCrunch digital presence is increasingly important to college bound students.
The existing online tools are not in sync with the needs and aspirations of the rising workforce,” Ebinger said. “ZeeMee is a fun and easy mobile platform for the 21st century where students show their best selves to the world through video.”
ZeeMee provides an app that allows students to upload photos, videos, and text to highlight their personal achievements and talents for prospective colleges; “dancers can upload videos from their latest recitals, athletes can show off their best game footage and researchers can show off shots from their latest science fair.”
For co-founder Juan Jaysingh, who came to the United States from India alone at the age of 14 for school, ZeeMee’s mission hits close to home. He believes ZeeMee gives all students an equal opportunity to showcase their work outside the classroom.
Jaysingh and ZeeMee’s other co-founder, Adam Metcalf, believe it’s only natural that a generation weaned on Instagram would want to include multimedia when they’re applying for college.
The two have known each other since they were roommates at American University. Metcalf has worked as a high school teacher, while Jaysingh has a consulting background.
“We don’t just want to be an application,” Jaysingh said. “We want to be a serious place where kids can showcase their work and grow, and we want to grow with them.”
ZeeMee began exploring partnerships with colleges in early 2015, and this fall will be the first admission cycle where it’s put to the test.
Elon University in North Carolina, Texas Christian University, and Southern Methodist University in Texas have all adopted the platform and included it in their application checklists for the class of 2020 and will offer a field for students to post their ZeeMee profiles on the Common Application.
Heath Einstein, director of freshman admission at TCU, is quoted on the ZeeMee website as sayng, “At TCU, we believe every student is unique. ZeeMee pages transform applicants from data points to real people, helping us assess best fit for the TCU community.”
ZeeMee, which is provided free of cost for students and schools, will be launching a mobile app in the coming weeks.
As the startup scales, it hopes students who use the platform to apply to college will also stay on it throughout their college years. In order to maintain their user base past the college application process, the company plans to provide career services and alumni services for a fee.