Risely AI (YC S25) — AI agents that automate administrative work across college campuses

In their words

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.

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