Nectir Believes That Every Student Deserves Help Anytime They Need It

When Kavitta Ghai was a student at UC Santa Barbara, she saw firsthand how students struggled to get academic support outside class hours. Office hours were limited, emails often went unanswered for days, and students were left to navigate complex coursework alone. That experience led her and co-founder Jordan Long, now CTO, to create Nectir, an AI-powered chatbot designed to provide instant academic support 24/7.

In an exclusive interview with AIM Research, Ghai reflected on the mission behind Nectir and how AI is now  student engagement. “We wanted to make sure no student ever feels like they are alone in their learning journey,” she said. “Education should be a community, not a solo experience.”

The idea for Nectir was deeply personal. Ghai, who has struggled with autism and ADHD, faced significant challenges throughout her education. She recalled the frustration of watching students struggle without immediate help. During her undergraduate studies at UCSB, she had a professor in a 300+ person class implement Slack, allowing students to get real-time support from each other and the TAs. However, she was told that Slack was too expensive and complicated to implement campuswide, as it wasn’t designed for large-scale academic deployment. “I remember sitting in my dorm at 2 AM, trying to finish an assignment, and thinking—why is there no one to help right now? We needed a solution that worked on students’ schedules, not just faculty availability,” she shared. That realization sparked the vision for an AI-powered assistant that would provide immediate, round-the-clock support.

Nectir initially launched as Nectir Chat, a real-time messaging platform designed to facilitate communication between students, faculty, and administrators. The tool quickly gained traction, fostering a more interactive and collaborative learning environment across campuses.

However, the landscape of education technology changed dramatically in 2023 with the rise of generative AI models like ChatGPT. “When I began to see how powerful conversational AI had become, I realized that AI could solve many of the student support problems we were addressing,” Ghai said. Recognizing this potential, the team integrated AI-powered Teaching Assistants into Nectir Chat. This enhancement revolutionized how students interacted with course material, providing instant academic support tailored to their needs.

As word spread, major institutions took notice. “Soon, bigger institutions like Stanford GSB began reaching out, asking if there was a way to create custom versions of these AI Assistants trained on their own proprietary data,” Ghai recalled. This demand led Nectir to develop a FERPA-compliant AI infrastructure, allowing schools to deploy “custom ChatGPT” solutions in every classroom.

Unlike many edtech startups that focus solely on technology, Nectir was built in close collaboration with students, professors, and administrators. “We spent months talking to our users,” Ghai said. “We wanted to understand their pain points and create something that fit naturally into their daily routines.”

For students, the need was clear: a more interactive and accessible learning environment. Educators, on the other hand, sought ways to extend discussions beyond class hours without increasing their workload. “One of the biggest concerns for professors was managing yet another platform,” Ghai said. “So, we made sure Nectir was as easy to use as sending a text message.”

Integrated into existing university systems like Canvas and Blackboard, Nectir provides a structured yet informal space where students can ask questions, share resources, and collaborate without the constraints of email or rigid discussion boards.

Nectir allows educators to create AI assistants customized to their needs, whether for a single class, a department, or an entire campus. “You can train it to help with only certain subjects or have it respond in a way that mirrors your teaching style,” Ghai explained. This ensures that AI serves as an extension of the instructor rather than a replacement.

A major concern in education is ensuring students consistently receive support. Ghai and Long saw AI as a tool to bridge this gap without burdening faculty. “We kept hearing from educators that they wanted to be there for their students, but there just weren’t enough hours in the day,” Ghai said. “That’s where Nectir comes in. It acts as an always-available teaching assistant that complements, rather than replaces, instructors.”

Universities are often slow to adopt new technology due to data privacy concerns, integration issues, and faculty training. “So, we focused on making implementation effortless,” Ghai said. Nectir’s strategy involved small pilot programs that expanded organically as faculty members became advocates. “Once professors saw engagement levels spike in their classrooms, word spread quickly,” she added.

Institutions using Nectir have reported a 20% increase in GPAs, a 13% rise in final scores, and a 36% boost in student motivation. With over 80,000 students across 100+ institutions, including Stanford GSB and Boston University Questrom School of Business, Nectir provides a scalable, FERPA-compliant solution that ensures institutions retain full control over their data.

Nectir recently secured $6.3 million in seed funding led by Long Journey Ventures. This funding will accelerate the development of its next-generation personalized learning platform, with a focus on launching conversation sentiment analysis and AI-powered feature that analyzes student interactions to identify learning patterns, suggest personalized course pathways, and provide career guidance.

The company is also expanding its engineering team to enhance its proprietary AI technology, which currently achieves 95%+ accuracy rates while maintaining FERPA compliance through private Azure endpoints. On the go-to-market side, Nectir is strengthening its implementation team to support rapid campus-wide deployments, which have already been successfully executed in as little as six weeks at institutions like Los Angeles Pacific University (LAPU).

Over the next 12 months, Nectir aims to roll out conversation sentiment analysis across all partner institutions, expand its California Community College system partnership statewide, surpass 500,000 active students, and develop advanced analytics dashboards that provide institutions with actionable insights into student engagement and learning outcomes.

While Nectir has found success in higher education, its ambitions extend beyond universities. “We’re exploring how our platform can be used in K-12 settings, corporate training programs, and even lifelong learning initiatives,” Ghai revealed. “Education isn’t just about formal institutions; it’s about creating communities of learning anywhere.”

As Nectir continues to scale, one thing they are clear with is AI is not replacing educators but empowering them. “Every student deserves access to help whenever they need it,” Ghai concluded. “And with Nectir, that’s finally possible.”