US student debt adviser Summer secures $10m in Series A funding round

Startup has ambition of creating "software that democratises" student loans process.

Summer, the US student debt adviser, has raised $10m (£8.1m) in a Series A funding round, as its ambition of creating "software that democratises" the student loans process gathers momentum.

Summer, which launched in 2017, acts as an adviser to student loan borrowers, helping them navigate the complexity of repaying the loan.

It says that through its platform, borrowers can get a holistic view of their loan situation and it can advise on repayments to students relative to salary once they have left higher education.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the amount of outstanding student loan debt by Americans is $1.5 trillion (£1.2 trillion).

Summer has now secured a $10m (£8.1m) series A round of funding, led by early-stage fintech investor QED Investors.

Summer co-founder and CEO Will Sealy told Tech Crunch: "We're trying to create the software that democratises [student loan] expertise, that gets the expertise into the hands of the end consumer, who might not be able to afford an accountant that doesn't even  unfortunately exist in the student loan apace at the current moment."

Sealy said Summer was ramping up to support 120 loan forgiveness programmes, as well as other student loan proposals.

The company began life at Yale, set up by Sealy and co-founders Vincent Tran and Paul Joo. The company has now moved to New York.

Since launch, Summer has helped around 10,000 borrowers.

"Just in this year, we have helped borrowers save $8m (£6.5m)," Sealy said. 

"A critical metric is not just how many people we are engaging, but how much money we're saving them," he added.

Summer does not charge the final users to use its product but sells through enterprises and other third parties who offer the prodcut as an employee benefit.