Fresh Money to Scale Rflect’s Infrastructure
Zurich-based EdTech startup Rflect has closed a seed round of close to CHF 1 million. The round was led by Friedrich Hoepfner, a former German Business Angel of the Year, through the Start Angel Network and other Business Angels with Edtech expertise. The platform of Rflect is used by over 40 universities to integrate authentic human skill development into their study programmes.
Press release as seen on Startupticker.ch 18.06.2026
As generative AI reshapes higher education, universities are concluding that the answer lies in strengthening the skills that remain distinctly human. Rflect, founded in 2022 by Niels Rot, Ivan Jovanovic and Ella Stadler-Stuart and supported by the Migros Pioneer Fund, gives universities and educators a platform to integrate authentic human skill development into their study programmes at scale. Students use Rflect to reflect on what they are learning, set personal learning goals and build defensible, longitudinal evidence of how their thinking and skills develop over time.
Driven by this shift, demand for the platform is surging, and the product has expanded from supporting personal development through guided reflection to the training and authentic assessment of human skills within university curricula, with further applications in accreditation and student retention. Nearly one million structured reflections were recorded in live curricula over the past year with the solution from Rflect.
The HSG-Spin-off has raised close to CHF 1 million in a seed round to scale its infrastructure for the teaching and authentic assessment of human skills, such as critical thinking, self-reflection, empathy, in higher education. The round was led by Friedrich Hoepfner, a former German Business Angel of the Year, through the StartAngels Network. “Everyone is funding machines that try to think. I decided to fund something that helps people think. Rflect turns human development from something universities talk about into something they can actually deliver and measure”, Hoepfner says.
The round featured further business angels and a syndicate of loyal Rflect users. Among the investors are prominent Edtech experts like Jonathan Alzetta and Sébastien Lebbe, the co-founders behind the scaleup WooClap.
Rflect has grown its client base to over 40 universities, with zero institutional churn. Customers include the University of St. Gallen (HSG), ETH Zürich, the Technical University of Munich, Wageningen University, the University of Gothenburg and MCI Innsbruck. Today, Rflect generates one-third of its revenue internationally, with customers in Germany, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands. The company expects to reach seven-figure revenue in early 2027.
The company is also testing first use cases beyond higher education, including pilots with large corporate clients around human skills and transfer of learning, and a pilot at a Swiss cantonal gymnasium together with BeLEARN and Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH).
Photo: Ivan Jovanovic (CTO), Niels Rot (CEO), Ella Stadler-Stuart (Communications)