Summer Lands $10M To Help Students Eliminate Debt

A startup that focuses on helping student borrowers with their debt has raised $10 million in a funding round, according to a report.

Summer is a public benefit company that aims to help students navigate the complicated world of loan forgiveness programs and figure out terms and conditions. Acting as a “trusted advisor” to students, Summer provides them with a holistic view of their debt and the best way to eliminate it.

The company’s website even has a “forgiveness finder” to help debtors find solutions that work for them.

“We’re trying to create the software that democratizes [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 space at this current moment,” said Summer CEO Will Sealy.

QED Investors, which is an early-stage investor, led the funding round. Matt Risley, who used to work at Klarna before QED, spearheaded the effort.

Sealy said Summer works with 120 loan forgiveness options and helps to sort out their complexities. He added that the company aims to expand that number by 100.

Sealy started Summer at Yale with Paul Joo and Vincent Tran, and there are currently 13 people on staff. Sealy used to work at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the Office of Students, where he held a position similar to the one Summer holds now.

Summer has helped around 10,000 borrowers since opening in 2017. “Just in this year, we have helped borrowers save $8 million,” Sealy said. “A critical metric is not just how many people we are engaging, but how much money we’re saving them.”

Risley said he believes in the company. “QED, like the rest of the investors like General Catalyst and Story Ventures, we put a pretty big round into this company on the belief that there’s an urgent problem facing these student loan borrowers, and we’re working hard to … scale to meet the needs of tens of millions of student borrowers.”