There’s no limit to the areas and segments where technology can be successfully employed. Here’s a UK-based startup, BridgeU that uses big data to help students choose the right course for them to pursue, out of the thousands being offered. BridgeU has now raised series A funding to the extent of $5.3 million. The major investor in this round is Octopus Ventures from London.
Fresco Capital having already invested in the project and Downing Ventures, a new investor also participated in the funding. Founded in 2014, BridgeU has already raised a total of $8.4 million, including this fresh induction. BridgeU employs around 40 people and works with schools in over 50 countries.
For students looking to choose the right course after school, the multiplicity of courses, (there are 40,000 courses in the UK alone) confuses the students and the schools they pass out from are also of precious little help.
BridgeU then steps in, takes personal details of the students, their interests, the score they have already achieved and their preferences. These are then put through the algorithms at their end, backed by past data and they are able to come up with the best course the student can pursue and guide the students accordingly.
This model of BridgeU has been prompted by some changes and shifts occurring within the education sphere. According to one analysis, education has undergone more changes in the past 20 years that it did in the previous 200 years. The biggest challenge is that young boys and girls coming out of universities with an undergraduate degree find themselves without a job. What’s more, most of them are found to be ‘unemployable’ by the businesses.
BridgeU plans to launch a career planner that will prove to be useful to the students in preparing themselves for the job they would prefer to take up after education.