Gets colleges' paper-era degree records onto DigiLocker so checks clear fast
TL;DR Transcriptwell digitises the old, paper-only degree and marksheet registers of state universities and autonomous colleges, lodges them in the National Academic Depository, and handles the verification requests that still arrive by post and email. Employers and screening firms pay per check, and the university shares the fee.
Employers in India still run into bad degrees. One large background-check firm reported that 5% of the education checks it ran between October 2024 and March 2025 turned up a discrepancy, mostly fake certificates or degrees from blacklisted institutions[1]. Checking a real degree is often the slow part though. A graduate from 2005 has no digital record, so the screening firm writes to a registrar's office that answers whenever it feels like it.
The national rails exist but they're patchy. The National Academic Depository lists 3,566 institutions onboarded, including 498 state universities and 1,413 autonomous colleges[2]. Many joined for recent batches only, and left decades of paper behind.
The seed proposed blockchain-based credentials. I dropped the chain, and here's why - India already has a government ledger for this. The depository claims 110 crore digital awards lodged[3], and documents issued through DigiLocker count as equal to the paper originals under the 2016 digital locker rules[4]. A private chain would ask employers to trust a second system for no gain.
Transcriptwell does the dull work the depository needs. A team scans and keys the institution's old tabulation registers, double-checks every entry against the original, and uploads them under the institution's own issuer account. The university signs off each batch, because only it can certify its records. A verification desk then answers queries for records still being backfilled, within an agreed turnaround, and logs the graduate's consent for each one.
So the product is a backfill project plus a desk, sold one institution at a time.
The registrar's office is the user, but its budget is thin. Employers and screening firms are the payers, since they already pay for each education check and lose days waiting on slow registrars. Transcriptwell charges the requester a fee per verification and shares part of it with the institution, which gives the registrar a reason to sign. I couldn't find a public price list for university verification fees, so ask three screening firms what they pay today.
The depository now covers thousands of institutions[2], so employers expect a digital answer and notice when they can't get one. DigiLocker reports over 70 crore users[5]. India's DPDP Act of 2023 also makes consent for sharing a graduate's record a formal duty, and many registrars have no process for it at all.
There's no public figure for how many education verifications Indian employers run each year, or what they pay. The narrowest firm number is the gap itself - 3,566 institutions on the depository[2], most of them with pre-digital years still on paper. As an adjacent signal, one screening firm's 5% education-discrepancy rate[1] shows checks are routine in hiring, not rare.
One Indian credential platform sells issuance, blockchain anchoring and OCR of paper registers to institutions, and claims more than 500 clients[6]. It is the closest rival. Background-screening firms run the checks but do not fix the records[7]. The gap is a done-for-you service paid for by verifiers, so a cash-poor state university pays nothing upfront.
| Difficulty | Moderate (38/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹60 L–1.1 Cr |
| Time to launch | 6–9 months |
The software is simple. The hard parts are winning a registrar's signature in a slow public institution, keying faded registers with near-zero errors, and getting enough paid checks per institution to cover the backfill cost. Expect most of the first year to go on two or three institutions, and that's if things go well.
Transcriptwell needs no sector licence. It works as a processor for each institution, so the approvals come from the institution, not a regulator.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't let AI lodge a record on its own. Only the university can certify a mark, and every entry needs human checking against the paper register.
Want to work out the AI layer for Transcriptwell? Talk to Yash →
Here's what can go south -
I'd back this for a founder who has worked with university administration or a screening firm and actually enjoys operations. It is not a technology play. If you're attached to the blockchain angle then it's a poor fit. Prove first that screening firms will pay a per-check fee for faster answers from two specific universities.
Plan for roughly ₹60 L–1.1 Cr, mostly on scanning and keying staff, quality checks and a verification desk.
No sector licence. You need each institution's approval to handle its records, a processor agreement under the DPDP Act and the usual company and GST registration.
Yes, wherever old university records sit on paper and employers check degrees. Check how your country's national credential systems and data protection law work first.
The free Transcriptwell validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the data-protection and university-approval checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for registrars and screening firms, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Transcriptwell or something close to it? The make-or-break work is getting a registrar to sign and a screening firm to pay for each check, which is exactly where I can help. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.