Education

Risely AI

Website
Founded 2025Origin source ↗Checked 2026-09-15

Overview

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.

Company description As recorded 2026-11-08

Founders & team

Shahryar Abbasi

Founder/CEO

CEO & Co-founder of Risely; serial operator with 13+ years building businesses. As GM at Airwallex, I built the Americas business from 0 to 1 and delivered 11x revenue growth. As VP Product at Trustedhealth, I transformed the growth funnel with automation and drove double-digit conversion gains. As Head of Platform Growth at NerdWallet, I drove $17M+ in P&L impact, and at Bain, I shaped market strategy for leading tech firms. I’m most at home building from zero & closing seven-figure deals.

Founder profile As recorded 2026-09-15

Sadia Saifuddin

Founder/CPO

CPO & Co-founder of Risely AI. Previously, I spent 7 years leading product development for Salesforce's Education Cloud, where I built from scratch the Student Information System that campuses everywhere rely on as their system-of-record. I also served as a voting Regent on the University of California Board of Regents, working shoulder-to-shoulder with Chancellors, Presidents, CIOs, and CFOs - giving me deep, firsthand insight into how universities operate and make decisions.

Founder profile As recorded 2026-09-15
8team members reported
Source-reported As recorded 2026-09-15

Founded 2025 · Source

News & product activity

Sources & observations

Hacker News · Y Combinator

Profile depthenriched profile
Website observationwebsite reachable
Last website check2026-11-11
Location · source statedSan Francisco, CA, USA
Pricing evidenceNo pricing page confirmed
Maturity: Not assessed · 3 of 6 areas documented

Source-based assessment · automated evidence rules

The captured homepage does not clearly identify the listed business.

Maturity is an evidence-based assessment, not a success rating. It may understate the current stage where evidence is limited. Coverage records documented areas, not a complete or independently audited company history.

Stage definitions
independent websitesource corroborationreachable websitedescriptive evidenceclassified market and modelsourced peoplesourced founding yearrecent publishing observeddated product or funding activity