Excl: Cloud-based Maths E-learning Startup Goes Off Beta In India

Spock Technologies Pvt Ltd owned Classtopper has been around for more than two years after launching in the UK market (under a separate company Responsible Learning Pvt Ltd). The e-learning startup which has just gone off-beta in India is now looking to change the way mathematics is taught.

It was founded around three years ago by Jatin Patel who also doubles up as an India strategic advisor for real estate services firm Savills, and three other entrepreneurs.

"When we were purely in the UK market, a lot of users from India signed up on our site. We saw a lot interest from India. For now, we have 11,000 users signed up on our site and seeing we have only been here few months, its good traction," Patel told Techcircle.in.

The concept revolves around providing an interactive module to schools (and even individuals-parents and children) to subscribe and learn maths through the portal. Apart from that, it provides analytics of all the activities of the child to understand the tendencies of the student and compare it to peers. It also provides a dashboard for parents and teachers to track how well the child is doing through reports. The modules also include some with games, videos and interactive adaptive learning.

The company is promoting the concept as CLAAS (Cloud learning as a service) which means the schools or members don't have to install any software as it is all on the cloud. Classtopper has math syllabus for seven curriculums for pre-kindergarten-8^thgrade across the world including UK, Singapore, Hong Kong and India among others.

There are two models of using the service which the company is following. First, is partnering with schools and the second one is through individual memberships (quarterly and annually). It says the former is more popular in the UK whereas the individual membership model has seen traction in countries like Hong Kong and Singapore.

The education industry is at a stage where we are seeing e-learning gaining momentum. This includes interactive whiteboards and projectors being used in the classes coupled with videos and better labs etc.

But there are others in the space of cloud-based real-time learning. Recently, Bangalore-based Elucido Media Networks, a platform provider for content delivery related to education and training, launched Elucido Learning and Collaboration System (ELCS), a SaaS-based solution for education institutes and corporates. Although this do not deal with school children directly, the basic model of providing a learning platform on cloud is similar. Pushing The Concept & Funding

According to Patel, Classtopper is looking to launch in other languages besides English and Science as a learning module. Apart from that, it is looking to build customer traction through mass marketing. They are also looking at launching a global Math Olympiad which might come out in the next three months.

"We are talking to international schools here and looking to launch a global math Olympiad and much more is on the way," Patel added.

The company raised around Rs 2-3 crore in angel funding from UK-based investors around two years ago and is now looking to raise Series A funding of atleast $10-15 million.