Student loan debt has surpassed $1 trillion and yet the cost of college tuition continues to rise.
Instagrad launched its attempt to solve this problem today. The startup has built a crowdfunding platform to help parents pay for their kids’ college education. Parents create campaigns on Instagrad where friends and family can invest in a child’s established 529 savings plan. They can include photos, messages, and fun facts and share the campaign on social media to attract support. Instagrad has also built a template for holidays and birthdays so parents can turn these events into fundraising opportunities.
“All the founders come from modest backgrounds so college is what made us into the people we are,” said cofounder Didier Boucard in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “However, our competition is not our peers but Toys R Us, Walmart, and Target. Why? Because parents are assailed with offers of useless toys, clothes gadgets on and offline. With student debt at 1 trillion we want to change the paradigm and make parents refocus on what’s important: a college education.”