ClassMonitor Founder Story: How Two Indore Friends Turned a School Chat App Into Learning Kits

By December 2019, ClassMonitor’s chat app was reportedly in use at more than 300 schools, with over 65,000 parents on it. The founders had already shifted their bet to a different product. This ClassMonitor founder story is about why they moved away from an app that was working, and what they built instead: a box of printed activities for small children, sold with an app subscription and, in part, through mothers in towns from Sangli to Siliguri.

In this story (about 10 minutes)

A WhatsApp problem in Indore

Vijeet Pandey came back to India in early 2016 after stints in retail in the UK. He knew he wanted to start something. Agriculture, education and healthcare were on his list.

“I wanted to build something scalable in one of these sectors.”

Vijeet Pandey, co-founder and CEO, to YourStory, July 2020

He reconnected with Vikas Rishishwar, a friend from his hometown who had spent almost five years building products at IT companies. YourStory and Entrepreneur India describe the two as childhood friends. Indore’s schools gave them a problem close to home: teachers and parents were talking to each other through crowded WhatsApp groups.

In March 2016 they launched ClassMonitor as a messaging platform for exactly that gap. Over time it added file sharing, event reminders, a feedback mechanism for a child’s performance, attendance, school bus tracking and a calendar, according to YourStory and Inc42.

The early money was small and private. YourStory reported in July 2020 that the company raised undisclosed angel funding at the idea stage from a Sweden-based investor whom Pandey had known during his time in the UK.

Traction came quickly. Within 15 months, more than 100 schools had signed up, including K-12 schools and preschool chains such as EuroKids, Kidzee and Humpty Dumpty. By December 2019, Inc42 reported the chat app was at more than 300 schools, with a strong presence in Indore and Ahmedabad.

Read More: Kailash Katkar Quick Heal Story: The Brothers Who Kept Postponing the Shutdown

The bigger problem behind the app

Then the founders looked past their own product. According to Inc42’s reporting, republished by Raindrops Insider, they concluded in January 2017 that communication was no longer the main problem. Young children lacked quality, relevant learning material, and parents were worried about screen time.

It took almost two years to act on that. The founders brought in experts with primary education experience to design a kit, and the ClassMonitor Learning Kit launched in October 2018. YourStory described the move as a pivot from a communication platform to a hybrid early learning tool, a model it labelled online-to-offline.

The old product did not simply disappear. Pandey told Inc42 how the two fit together.

“…it was this platform that eventually evolved into our go-to-market strategy…”

Vijeet Pandey to Inc42, as quoted by Raindrops Insider, December 2019

That is the part of the story other founders can learn from. The chat app had put ClassMonitor in front of schools and thousands of parents’ phones. When the learning kit arrived, the audience was already there. This is StartupIndiaX’s reading of the sequence, not a claim the founders make in those words.

Inside the box, and what it costs

YourStory reported in July 2020 that each kit held 250 DIY activities: flashcards, worksheets, rhymes, stories, art supplies and games. Inc42’s December 2019 profile cited more than 300 study items, so counts differ by source and date.

The box comes bundled with an app subscription. Sheets and flashcards carry QR codes, and scanning them in the app gives parents the cues for an activity. Parents can set the pace, pick outcomes and track progress, Pandey told YourStory.

The kit is built around five areas: language, logical thinking, sensory and motor skills, cognitive skills and creativity. One detail stands out in Inc42’s profile. The kit includes a pencil with a seed at the end, so a child can use it down and then plant a tree.

At launch there were two variants, Junior (1.5 to 3.5 years) and Senior (3.5 to 5.5 years). By December 2019 the company sold to four age groups.

As of July 2020, YourStory reported four kit models, each priced at ₹3,499 a year including the app subscription. A Skill Booster Kit for ages 6 to 8 cost ₹1,099 a year. Kits were sold on ClassMonitor’s own website and on Amazon.

Read More: Pre-Money vs Post-Money Valuation: How Indian Founders Should Read a Funding Headline

How ClassMonitor earns its money

The core is a paid annual kit, with the app bundled in. Around it sit a few other lines, each reported at a different point in time.

• Schools buying in bulk. In July 2020, Pandey said schools that could not hold classes during the lockdown were buying kits to hand to parents. He claimed B2B revenue had grown 100 percent in two months. YourStory noted that more than half of revenue still came from direct-to-consumer sales then.
• Small-town preschools. Pandey called unbranded preschools in smaller towns a huge market, because many have little idea how to run a preschool.
• Live classes. ClassMonitor launched 45-minute live classes in May 2020 to guide parents through the kit’s activities, and reported more than 1,000 enrolments in three months.
• Hindi. In August 2021, BW Education reported a Skill Master Hindi Edition for ages 2.5 to 5.5, priced at ₹2,500, with the company saying it aimed to add other languages.

On the numbers, YourStory reported in July 2020 that ClassMonitor had grossed ₹2 crore (about $0.27 million at ₹75 to the dollar) since the pivot and hoped to end 2020 with ₹4 to 5 crore. By May 2021, Wamda reported ₹7 crore (about $0.96 million at ₹73) in net revenue since the October 2018 launch. In the same month, Pandey said the company had been profitable for the previous 14 months. All of these are company statements. StartupIndiaX has not independently verified them.

Mothers as the sales force

A physical product needs delivery, and ClassMonitor tied up with Delhivery for logistics and set up small distribution hubs across territories, YourStory reported in July 2020.

The more unusual channel was people. In December 2019, Inc42 reported that the company had signed resellers and young mother-entrepreneurs as ambassadors in more than 24 cities, and that Pandey saw the parent as the platform’s key marketer.

By July 2020, the company said it had 62 mom bloggers and resellers across 45 cities, and that about 35 percent of sales came through this social commerce channel. In May 2021, Entrepreneur India reported more than 100 mothers acting as distributors, from Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi to Sangli, Siliguri and Guwahati.

Reach claims grew alongside. In July 2020, Pandey said kits had gone to 378 cities in India and eight other countries. By May 2021, the company described a presence in more than 1,000 cities and more than 12 countries. The two statements may count “presence” differently, and neither has been independently checked.

Read More: Ghazal Alagh’s Mamaearth Story: From Six Baby Products to a ₹1,701 Crore IPO

A pandemic year in numbers

The 2020 lockdown helped. Pandey told YourStory that direct-to-consumer traffic had risen 50 percent a month since it began, and that COVID-19 had a positive effect on all of the company’s revenue streams.

The user numbers moved fast. In July 2020, ClassMonitor claimed 30,000 registered app users, of whom 15,000 were paid subscribers and 8,000 were premium users with the Skill Booster Kit. By May 2021, Entrepreneur India reported more than 75,000 registered users, of whom 50,000 were paid.

The team grew too. YourStory counted 43 people in July 2020. By May 2021 Pandey said it was more than 100, and that the company aimed for more than 200 people and a ₹20 crore (about $2.7 million at ₹73) annual recurring revenue run rate by that financial year-end.

Treat the jump from 15,000 to 50,000 paid subscribers with care. These are company-reported figures from two different interviews, and the definition of “paid” may have changed between them.

Who backed ClassMonitor

By July 2020, ClassMonitor had raised about ₹2.5 crore (about $0.33 million at ₹75) from angel investors, YourStory reported. Named backers included Vivek Venkatesan, then described as CFO of Jio Financial Services, Ashwin Khorana, a former CIO of Jana Bank, and Venkatesan Iyer, then Audit Head at Fullerton India, along with ten others. Pandey said he hoped to close a $1 million pre-Series A within three to four months.

That round came later and smaller. On 19 May 2021, ClassMonitor announced ₹3.5 crore (about $0.48 million at ₹73) in pre-Series A funding from PATH India Ltd, a construction company, the UAE-based Calega family office and Sarvann, a group of Oman-based investors. Entrepreneur India and Wamda reported that the company had raised ₹6 crore (about $0.82 million) since 2016, and that its angel round included Piyush Jain, CFO of Al Hajri group.

“We loved the sheer enthusiasm and the vision of the founders.”

Rishika Agrawal, promoter, PATH India Ltd, to Entrepreneur India, May 2021

On 30 November 2022, Entrackr reported a ₹10 crore (about $1.2 million at ₹81.5) pre-Series A round led by Frontline Strategy Funds, with Khimji Family (Muscat) and existing investors Sarvann and Calega. The company said it had doubled its user base in the previous six months and had recently started a YouTube channel. The round came as edtech funding fell from $5.82 billion in 2021 to $2 billion in 2022 up to 15 August, by Entrackr’s count.

The ownership picture is on public record too. Inc42 Datalabs, which draws on filings, showed that as of 22 February 2024 Pandey held 40.0 percent of ClassMonitor, founders together held 43.4 percent, investors 39.2 percent and the ESOP pool 4.9 percent. Its top three shareholders were Pandey, Piyush Jain and IA Growth Opportunities Fund I, an investor the funding reports we found do not mention.

Totals differ by source. Entrepreneur India put funding at ₹6 crore by May 2021, while Inc42 Datalabs lists $1.71 million or more in total, with its last funding event on 29 November 2022. We found no later round as of November 2026.

What the filings-based numbers show

Inc42 Datalabs, which consolidates public records and statutory filings, reports ClassMonitor’s revenue at ₹7.8 crore (about $0.98 million) in FY23, ₹10.5 crore (about $1.27 million) in FY24 and ₹14.7 crore (about $1.73 million) in FY25. That is growth of 39.6 percent in the latest year.

In FY25, Inc42 Datalabs shows expenses of ₹14.2 crore, profit after tax of ₹35.9 lakh and a net margin of 2.5 percent. It lists 214 employees as of November 2026. StartupIndiaX has not independently verified these figures.

One comparison is worth making, as editorial analysis. In May 2021, Pandey spoke of a ₹20 crore run rate by that financial year-end. The FY25 revenue of ₹14.7 crore is still below that ambition. Annual recurring revenue and statutory revenue are different measures, and we did not find FY22 figures, so this is context rather than a verdict.

What is clear is the direction: steady growth, a thin profit and a team more than twice the size reported in 2021.

Who else sells learning boxes

YourStory named Flintobox and PlayShifu as ClassMonitor’s competitors in educational activity products in July 2020. Blume Ventures, in a report YourStory cited, listed ClassMonitor among its seed-stage plays to watch in gamified edtech, next to OckyPocky, Toiing and Lattu Kids. Lattu Kids had recently sold a 10 percent stake to Bharti Airtel at that point.

Blume put the direct-to-consumer edtech market for children under eight at $95 million, per YourStory’s July 2020 account. Inc42’s December 2019 profile pointed to a different challenge: winning larger schools as partners while facing BYJU’S, Smartivity and Toppr.

Against that field, ClassMonitor’s distinguishing choices are a printed, parent-led kit, mothers as resellers and a Hindi program. Whether those add up to a lasting advantage is StartupIndiaX’s open question, not something the sources settle.

The ClassMonitor founder story, year by year

Net worth and valuation: what can be said

No credible source we found gives a verified net worth for Vijeet Pandey or Vikas Rishishwar. None of the funding reports we found disclosed a valuation for ClassMonitor either.

What is on record is ownership. Inc42 Datalabs showed Pandey with 40.0 percent as of 22 February 2024. A stake is not net worth, and without a priced round it cannot be turned into a valuation. Some third-party data sites publish modelled valuations. StartupIndiaX does not repeat them here because they are not tied to a disclosed round. Treat any net worth figure you see online as an unverified estimate.

Read More: DailyObjects Founder Story: From Phone Cases to a ₹1,050 Crore Valuation

What other founders can take from the box

Let the first product build the second one’s audience. The chat app reached schools and parents before the kit existed. Pandey himself said it became the go-to-market for the learning platform.

Name the bigger problem even when the current one works. By January 2017 the app was gaining schools. The founders still wrote down a larger problem, and it took until October 2018 to ship the answer.

Sell where trust already lives. Mothers recommending a kit to other mothers was a channel the company said drove about 35 percent of sales in July 2020, with 62 resellers across 45 cities.

Plan for the boring part of a physical product. Delivery partners and local hubs show up in ClassMonitor’s early reporting. A box needs logistics from the first month.

Put targets on the record with care. Public goals get checked later. ClassMonitor’s 2021 run-rate ambition is a useful reminder to state targets the way you plan to report against them.

Where ClassMonitor stands now

As of November 2026, ClassMonitor is operating from Indore, reports a small profit for FY25 and has 214 employees on Inc42 Datalabs’ count. We found no funding round after November 2022. In July 2020, Pandey told YourStory he saw ClassMonitor as a possible acquisition target one day. No deal has been reported in the sources we found.

If you are building a consumer product outside the big metros, we would like to hear how you are finding your first thousand customers. Tell us in the comments, share this story with a founder who sells to parents, or send us your own story.

FAQs

Read next

Try these tools if you are weighing a raise of your own: the Funding Round Dilution Calculator and the Startup Valuation Calculator.

Sources and disclosure

Story type: public-source profile.

Sources

1. YourStory, “[Startup Bharat] This Indore-based edtech platform is using DIY kits to spruce up preschool learning”, 30 July 2020. https://ts.yourstory.com/2020/07/indore-startup-edtech-classmonitor-diy-kits-preschool-learning
2. Raindrops Insider (Inc42 BIGShift series), “Indore’s ClassMonitor Takes Students Back To Tradition With Hybrid Digital Learning”, 30 December 2019. https://raindrops-insider.beehiiv.com/p/indores-classmonitor-takes-students-back-to-tradition-with-hybrid-digital-learning
3. Entrepreneur India, “Indore-based Edtech Startup ClassMonitor Raises INR 3.5 Cr Pre-Series A Round”, 19 May 2021. https://india.entrepreneur.com/finance/indore-based-edtech-startup-classmonitor-raises-inr-35-cr/372327
4. Wamda, “UAE’s Calega, Oman-based investors invest in India-based ClassMonitor”, May 2021. https://wamda.com/2021/05/uaes-calega-oman-based-investors-invest-india-based-classmonitor
5. BW Education, “ClassMonitor Joins The Vernacular Learning Market”, 24 August 2021. https://www.bweducation.com/article/classmonitor-joins-the-vernacular-learning-market-401640
6. Entrackr, “Edtech startup ClassMonitor raises Rs 10 Cr in pre-Series A round”, 30 November 2022. https://entrackr.com/2022/11/edtech-startup-classmonitor-raises-rs-10-cr-in-pre-series-a-round
7. Inc42 Datalabs, ClassMonitor financials and cap table pages, read November 2026. https://inc42.com/company/classmonitor/financials/ and https://inc42.com/company/classmonitor/captable/

USD figures are StartupIndiaX’s approximate conversions at ₹75 (July 2020), ₹73 (May 2021), ₹81.5 (November 2022) and average rates of about ₹80, ₹83 and ₹85 for FY23, FY24 and FY25. They are not taken from the publications.

Corrections: Spotted an error? Email corrections@startupindiax.com and we will review and update the article.

Written by the StartupIndiaX Editorial Team, StartupIndiaX writers covering Indian startups, founders, and entrepreneurship.