Scholly

What Scholly does

Scholly is a scholarship search and matching platform that enables students to search, filter, and apply to thousands of college scholarships through criteria including year in school, GPA requirements, award amount, state, major, and scholarship type. The product suite consists of a core scholarship database (Scholly Scholarships) and an Easy Apply add-on module that lets students apply to up to 18 no-essay scholarships (~$13,000 combined monthly value) through a single form. The platform is built on standard multi-criteria filtering and affiliate link tracking rather than AI-driven matching.

The company was founded by Christopher Gray (originally circa 2013-2015) and gained early visibility through a Shark Tank appearance. In 2023, Sallie Mae (SLM Corporation) acquired Scholly and folded it into SLM Education Services, LLC, a Delaware entity; the product is now distributed exclusively through sallie.com as an embedded scholarship hub within the parent's broader student-loan and college-planning ecosystem. Since the acquisition, the platform has been operated with a 1-10 person team, and the original founder and co-founders have departed, including via a 2026 Delaware whistleblower lawsuit alleging unauthorized monetization of student user data.

Scholly monetizes through affiliate/referral commissions when users click through to third-party scholarship programs (e.g., ScholarshipOwl, Niche) and, per a disputed whistleblower complaint, potentially through data services. The end-user product is free, the go-to-market is product-led via Sallie Mae's owned digital channels, and the primary customer segments are high school and college students seeking financial aid. The business carries meaningful reputational and regulatory exposure given the active litigation and data-handling allegations.

Name

Scholly

Legal name

SLM Education Services, LLC

Website

https://myscholly.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Scholly is a free scholarship search and matching platform acquired by Sallie Mae in 2023, now embedded in sallie.com to help high school and college students find, filter, and apply to scholarships. It monetizes via affiliate referrals and, per a disputed whistleblower lawsuit, alleged data services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Scholarship Search Platform

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Scholarship, Financial Aid & FAFSA Support Platforms (EDAFAMAF)

akta.pro secondary industry

Application Support, Matching Platforms & Scholarship Administration Services (EDAIAOAN)

Keywords

• Scholarship search platform
• Scholarship matching service
• Student financial aid
• Scholarship database
• College funding search

Headquarters

HQ city

Philadelphia

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Operations

Revenue model

1. Affiliate/Referral Revenue: The platform earns commissions when users click through to and sign up for external scholarship programs or services, as indicated by tracked affiliate links on the platform.
2. Data Services (Alleged): According to a whistleblower lawsuit, Sallie Mae allegedly sold user data through a shell company structure to advertising platforms like Backpack Media, targeting 8.5 million students, families, and young professionals.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Scholly operates a free scholarship search and matching platform that allows U.S. students to search, filter, and apply for college scholarships based on criteria such as year in school, GPA, major, state, and award amount. The core offering is complemented by the Easy Apply feature, which lets students submit a single form to apply for up to $13,000 in no-essay scholarships each month across 18 featured opportunities. The platform aggregates thousands of scholarships, including both proprietary and third-party listings, and is distributed exclusively through Sallie Mae's website.

Product overview

Scholly is a scholarship-matching platform acquired by Sallie Mae in 2023. The product suite consists of a core scholarship search platform (Scholly® Scholarships) that enables students to search and filter through thousands of college scholarships by various criteria including year in school, major, award amount, and requirements. The platform also offers an add-on feature called Scholly® Easy Apply Scholarships, which allows students to apply to multiple scholarships with a single form submission for a combined total of up to $13,000 per month. The platform appears to aggregate and display third-party scholarship opportunities alongside proprietary scholarship listings.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Scholly® Scholarships A free scholarship search platform that enables U.S. students to search, filter, and find thousands of college scholarships by year in school, requirements (GPA, recommendations, transcripts), award amount, state, major, and scholarship type. Distributed through Sallie Mae's website for individual student consumers.
• Scholly® Easy Apply Scholarships A streamlined application feature that allows students to apply for up to $13,000 in scholarships each month (18 featured no-essay scholarships) using a single form submission, eliminating the need to complete separate applications for each opportunity.

Named customers1 record

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Sallie Mae (SLM Corporation)coreOEM/ Whitelabel/ Licensing PartnerSallie Mae acquired Scholly in 2023 and integrated the platform into their financial services ecosystem. Scholly operates as a subsidiary under SLM Education Services, LLC, providing scholarship matching services to Sallie Mae's customer base. The platform is now branded and distributed through Sallie Mae's website.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Scholarships.com: One of the largest free scholarship search databases in the US, allowing students to filter by profile criteria. Direct competitor to Scholly's core search-and-match functionality and a peer in the affiliate-driven free-to-student business model.
• ScholarshipOwl: Scholarship search and matching platform that also runs proprietary no-essay scholarships and surfaces as an affiliate partner on Scholly's own site. Directly comparable product, audience and monetization approach, including sponsored easy-apply scholarships.
• Fastweb: Long-established free scholarship, college and financial-aid matching platform with a large database of vetted opportunities. Highly comparable to Scholly on search/matching and freemium consumer model, and historically one of the most-cited direct competitors.
• Niche: College and K-12 search platform with a strong scholarship database and matching tools, including no-essay awards. Listed as a Scholly affiliate partner and competes for the same high-school and college-student audience.
• Cappex: College and scholarship search platform owned by Carnegie Dartlet, offering free matching for scholarships and colleges. Highly comparable search-and-filter offering targeting high school students and families.

Broad incumbents

• College Board BigFuture: College Board's free college and scholarship planning hub used by virtually all US college-bound students. A scaled incumbent with overlapping scholarship-discovery features and strong organic reach comparable to Scholly's Sallie Mae distribution.
• Chegg Scholarships: Scholarship search tool from the broader Chegg student-services platform, leveraging an existing student subscriber base. Comparable search functionality and audience but bundled inside a much larger textbook and tutoring ecosystem.

Emerging players

• Going Merry: Scholarship search and application platform serving high-school students and counselors, including direct application workflows. Comparable core product, narrower school/counselor distribution but increasingly competing for the same Easy Apply use case.
• Raise.me: Micro-scholarship platform where students earn incremental award dollars from colleges for achievements over time. Different reward mechanic but directly competes for the student-scholarship-discovery funnel that Scholly targets.

Regional players

• Appily (formerly Cappex + AcceptU): US-focused college, scholarship and admissions platform combining search, scholarships and application support. Overlaps with Scholly on scholarship search while extending into application management for the same US high-school audience.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/MyScholly
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/4976380

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors4 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Scholly