ADPList raises fresh funds to help everyone get instant access to mentorship

ADPList, a global mentorship platform based in Singapore, has raised $1.3 million in funding from Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, according to a company announcement.

The funding will help the startup provide professionals and students instant access to mentorship around the world, making learning through mentors instantly accessible.

The startup started in 2020 as a list of names, sprouted by the founders’ desire to help the many designers who found themselves out of a job as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

One tab in the open-source spreadsheet focused on mentoring, which received the most clicks. This eventually led the founders to build this into a platform, according to the announcement.

What initially began as a means for designers to provide peer support, share career opportunities and offer mentorship to others impacted by the pandemic, has since organically grown to over 20,500 mentees, 2,500 mentors, and over 5,000 booked sessions per month.

“We started ADPList during the height of the pandemic, and the success of the platform has since shown us that there is a global network of people ready to connect and provide support for others in their communities,” said co-founder Felix Lee.

On ADPList, mentors can indicate their availability on a shared calendar for mentees to select and schedule virtual sessions. Video calls are conducted within the platform along with feedback and ratings after each session.

Beyond one-on-one mentoring, the platform also offers small group mentoring, townhall-style talks, and other formats.

“From the first moment I started mentoring with ADPList, I knew it was more than an act of ‘passing on knowledge’. After clocking 6000+ minutes across ten time zones with 100+ mentees from more than 15 different counties, I can tell you one thing for sure: Every session is a unique exchange of our lives, our stories, and our dreams,” said Michael Tam, Global Design Director at IBM iX.