Connecting alumni with alma mater

Wouldn't it be great to have a social network-like platform that helps students and colleges leverage their alumni network for professional benefits?

AlmaConnect, a Gurgaon-based online portal, does that. The portal enables alumni and colleges to discover relevant information and form meaningful professional relationships through their networks.

"While alumni can initiate networks for their colleges on the platform, the latter can showcase their alumni success stories," says co-founder and chief executive officer Swapnil Khandelwal. The platform has connected about 250 colleges with their alumni and has about 250,000 free users. Plans are afoot to hit a one-million user mark in six months and get 500 more colleges on board in another year.

The start-up's only revenue stream is the annual fee, about 0.2 million from each college. It is planning to experiment with new revenue models, including opening of recruitment solutions.

AlmaConnect is set to close a $2-mn Series-A funding round in a couple of months, to move on to the next growth phase. "We are planning to take the product global, with the US being the primary target," says co-founder Rubish Gupta.