Startup Classplus helps tutors to manage students, online payments and more through an app

Some startups ideas come from personal experience or a situation that the startup founder has met. So has startup Classplus. Co-founders Mukul Rustagi and Bhaswat Agarwal met in a coaching class while preparing for IIT JEE in 2007. The coaching class shut mid-year and the duo studied themselves and ‘aced that phase’. Subsequently, Rustagi graduated from IIT Roorkhee while Bhaswat passed his exams from NSIT (Delhi) in 2013. The B Tech graduates joined different organisations but stayed in touch. After two and a half years of working, they decided to get together and launch a venture. Chastened by their IIT Jee experience, the 27-year-olds decided to work in the teaching/coaching field and launched Classplus in 2018, pooling their savings of Rs 15 lakhs. [caption id=“attachment_5899661” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Bhaswat Agarwal and Mukul Rustogi, co-founders. Pic courtesy: Classplus[/caption] “We were fortunate, in retrospect to have stumbled upon the challenges faced by millions of tutors in the country such as designing content, conducting assessments, brand development, parent communication, performance tracking; so much more is needed apart from just teaching. We couldn’t find any technology to automate the processes and bring the entire ecosystem together. That’s when we decided to solve the problem through a mobile solution as we started seeing internet penetrate the masses,” said Rustagi. How it works The app can be used by tutors, students and parents. Parents can log in using the parent mode and get mapped to their kids. Once activated, they are able to stay abreast of their child’s progress through notifications. It records the attendance of every student and updates parents on the progress of their child. It also gives detailed reports on the child’s performance on tests conducted online by the tutors. It tracks upcoming fees and pending payments. Parents can also use the app to directly chat with tutors. For tutors, it has become handy to schedule quizzes, send notes, prep material and even links so that their time is freed up for teaching. It is free of cost for students while the tutor has to pay for it. Realising that most tutors would be middle-aged, the app requires minimal typing. “The app has been created as a zero-typing product, keeping in mind its usability for middle-aged tutors,” said Rustogi. After launching Classplus, the duo raised an undisclosed amount from seasoned entrepreneur-investors including the Dutch VC firm, Rising Stars Fund, LetsVenture, Manish Amin (Founder, Yatra.com) and Pallav Pandey (Founder, Knowlarity, Fastfox.com) amongst others. They have also been supported by initiatives like Facebook’s FbStart and Amazon EdStart who ‘have helped us radically in optimising our tech spends and set free cloud credits amongst others. They also introduced us to their vast network opening up potential synergies,” said Rustagi. Private tutoring has grown mainstream in the country in the last couple of decades. What used to be a localised activity teaching students in the tutor’s houses in the 90s has grown into a fully fledged industry providing quality education to kids and adults alike, across the country. The success ratios across competitive exams in India has put the concepts of probability to shame. Parents and kids turn to these centres that have led to private tutoring becoming the backbone of the test-prep segment. The supplementary education market in the country sees over 70 million students taking up private tuitions every year, estimating an over $20 billion market size. There are over 7.5 lakh SMEs operating as hyperlocal coaching centres. “We realise that mobile data revolution enables tutors to lead their activities on the go and also keep the millennial students stay connected continually. On Classplus, tutors can do all their business tasks, online assessments, payments, content and parent interaction on the platform. We have also introduced functionalities that contribute to increasing their topline. We aim to be the de-facto platform for all the coaching institutes and enable them to take their business online in the smartphone age,” said Rustagi. Operationally breaking-even now, the startup is investing in developing and deploying the technology. “We see ourselves breaking-even on the venture level in the next 12-15 months. Currently, we are catering to over 1200 tutors spread across 25 different geographies in the country. We are chasing a 10x growth in our next phase, and will launch a couple of verticals for the same target audience,” he added.