After founding HSC tutoring platform Stella AI just nine months ago, Sydney-based young entrepreneurs Alisa Wu and Simran Nandan have achieved a successful exit of the business with a sale to an undisclosed education company in NSW.
The co-founders both confirmed the sale in separate LinkedIn posts with Wu adding that Stella AI is now in “great hands” with a more established education company following the acquisition that was finalised in September. Financial details of the sale have not been revealed.
“I started Stella AI because I recognised an opportunity to transform HSC tutoring with artificial intelligence (AI),” says Wu, who co-founded the business with Nandan – a finalist in the Startup category of this year’s Sydney Young Entrepreneur Awards.
“Drawing from my experience as a private HSC tutor, I envisioned a platform that would make personalised education accessible to all students.
“I built an initial prototype to bring this to life and scouted my first users at local libraries. The response was phenomenal, giving me the validation I needed to take this project further.”
Over the past nine months, Wu notes that Stella AI has grown to support about 2,000 students directly through the web application, while the startup has also partnered with “leading education companies across Australia, including ASX-listed companies”.
Speaking with Business News Australia this morning, Wu concedes the sale is a bitter-sweet moment for her first startup journey.
“After so many months of working hard on this it feels very sad (to let it go) but I am very happy that it is in good hands at another company,” she says.
While Stella AI is specifically designed for HSC students in NSW, Wu says it could readily be adapted to other jurisdictions which she can see happening following the sale of the platform.
Stella AI operates on both B2B and B2C models, supporting educators and students by offering 24/7 offline assistance.
The startup also serves as a “coherent and intelligent subject-matter tutor for all HSC subjects, ensuring continuous support whenever needed”.
Wu, who spent many years as a maths and science tutor, says she established Stella AI after seeing a “huge boom” in AI.
“I was really inspired to apply AI to make what I was doing more scalable and accessible to more students,” says Wu.
“I decided to build an AI tutor to do basically what I do without the high cost of private tutoring. I also put my method of teaching into AI so it could each students the way I was teaching my students.”
Following the sale, Wu reveals she is currently exploring other opportunities in the AI space. Although she remains passionate about the education sector, Wu is taking a broader view of the opportunities available.
In a separate LinkedIn post, Nandan highlights the key achievement that Stella AI had “attracted enough attention to be acquired” within a year of being founded.
“For my first AI startup, the journey was a real game-changer,” she says.
In addition to joining Wu in founding Stella AI, Nandan separately founded Concept Education, another AI-powered tutor service that targets HSC students in NSW.
“Our focus is on addressing the pain points where students feel they lack adequate and premium support in their educational endeavors,” says Namdan in her submission to the 2024 Sydney Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.
“We offer tutoring services through a B2C model, helping students achieve their dream ATARs and gain admission to their desired universities.
“Our goal is to provide a trusted solution for parents seeking support and to be a reliable partner in boosting their confidence during the HSC journey.”
Nandan notes that the educational landscape is evolving rapidly, “making it challenging to keep pace”.
“With Generation Alpha experiencing the highest rates of ADHD diagnoses and increased boredom, educators face significant tests," she says.
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