Nectir Raises $12.5 Million to Scale Secure AI Infrastructure Across Higher Education

New updates have been reported about Nectir.

Nectir has raised $12.5 million in new funding to accelerate deployment of its secure AI infrastructure for education, positioning the company as a key enabler of institutional AI strategies as colleges adapt to rapid AI adoption by students. The round was led by Rethink Impact with participation from Gingerbread Capital, Strada, and existing investors, and will be used to scale Nectir’s platform across more campuses and student populations.

Founded by CEO Kavitta Ghai and Jordan Long, Nectir provides customizable AI Assistants for students, faculty, and administrators that are trained on each institution’s own content, integrated with learning management systems, and designed to preserve academic integrity rather than replace instruction. The platform is fully FERPA- and SOC 2-compliant, does not use student data to train models, and is already in use by roughly 80,000 students on more than 100 campuses, including via a landmark deal that makes Nectir available to the 2.1 million students in the California Community Colleges system.

For institutions facing pressure to prove value amid declining public trust in higher education and evolving employer skill needs, Nectir positions its infrastructure as a way to offer 24/7, AI-driven support at scale while maintaining control, privacy, and pedagogical alignment. Its impact data include a peer-reviewed study at Los Angeles Pacific University showing a 7.5% campuswide GPA increase, with 74% of students reporting better learning experiences and 36% reporting higher motivation. Faculty customers highlight the ability to constrain and customize responses versus generic AI tools, giving schools a controlled alternative to unregulated student use of public chatbots.

The new capital comes as nearly 90% of college students report using AI tools and as the World Economic Forum forecasts that 39% of core job skills will change by 2030, underscoring demand for AI literacy and analytical thinking. With this funding, Nectir aims to broaden its reach from tens of thousands to potentially tens of millions of learners, positioning itself as core infrastructure for institutions seeking to standardize AI use, protect data, and document measurable learning and retention gains. Investors describe Nectir as a category-defining edtech infrastructure play at the intersection of compliance, outcomes, and mission-driven scaling, indicating expectations for continued growth in both secondary and higher education markets.