AskEd has raised £100,000 pre-seed funding at a £2m valuation from angel investors and launched its voice AI platform for university and college student recruitment.

The company was founded by Stefan Parker, who spent 15 years in higher education student recruitment, and John Crick, who has over two decades of international student recruitment experience.

Parker developed the initial concept following his redundancy last October and tested an early prototype with students at Middlesex University before approaching Crick.

AskEd’s platform handles student enquiries by voice in real time, in over 70 languages, around the clock. It draws on each institution’s own verified content to answer questions accurately, qualifies leads and integrates with existing CRM systems. The basic deployment requires one line of code, the EdTech firm says.