Pedagoge is a marketplace of verified teachers (academic and extra-curricular) for the needs of students, schools, coaching institutions, and organizations. They provide a platform for teachers and institutes to spread awareness about their services by allowing them to create their own profiles on the website by jotting down their coaching details, areas of expertise, etc. The users, on the other hand, provide details of what they want to learn (for example subject/activity, locality, start date, etc.) and based on that, pedagoge connects them to teachers/institutes who are the best suited to their preferences. Registration on the platform is free and they only charge a commission from the teachers when they provide them with a business opportunity.
Further, the uniqueness of the concept lies in its ability to provide customized options to circumvent the unreliability of the coaching services. Pedagoge assigns a consultant to each person who posts a query, these consultants stay in constant touch with both the teachers/institutes and the student/parent till needs of both have been satisfied. Assigning a domain-specific consultant provides comfort to the teachers and guidance to the students.
They are backed by Nasscom 10,000 startups and are currently operational in Delhi NCR and Kolkata. Founded in 2015, pedagoge is an education technology startup by a St. Xavier’s college graduate and a qualified chartered accountant – Rohit Mall (founder and C.E.O). The idea of founding a company at the age of 23 did not come as a surprise to his friends or family since entrepreneurship runs in his family with his father being a renowned entrepreneur himself. Rohit’s rationale behind founding pedagoge was to create a platform which helps people discover customized learning experiences.
The concept of pedagoge was born from Rohit’s own experiences. As a student, he wasn’t too fond of mathematics which resulted in him getting two private tutors for math. One teacher helped him clear his concepts and the other one used to help him practice. That is when he realized how important it is for students to connect with the right teachers and that, there are numerous students like him who face the same problem. This led him to start a portal called the Student Panda in 2014 where students could connect with teachers. The same was rebranded as pedagoge in 2015 when they were incubated by Nasscom.
Pedagoge started its operations from the Nasscom warehouse in Kolkata. They launched their beta version in December 2015. By January the following year, they had their first 1000 teachers!
Pedagoge officially launched its public beta version in May 2016 and shifted to their new office in Sector 5, Kolkata. In July 2016 they were selected as one of the top 5 products in Kolkata by national product conclave, Nasscom, and in 2017, they were amongst the top 30 startups in east India. Pedagoge was also one of the few startups from the city to be invited for the launch of the Startup India initiative, a flagship plan of the current government to boost new-age startups launched in New Delhi.
As of 2018, with access to over 8,000 teachers/institutes and more than 100,000+ students/parents, they have been able to create a niche community in the learning fraternity. For achieving this feat, Rohit was also interviewed by et now for their daily news show “Leaders of tomorrow” in February 2018.
“we have a dedicated team of employees who work tirelessly (24*7) to help people reach their learning goals. Our company culture and our incredibly friendly work atmosphere is something we are proud of.” said by founder
Up until now, they have served over 800 clients across Kolkata and Delhi NCR which means they have managed to provide business opportunities to over 700 teachers and institutes who have cumulatively generated a revenue of over 1 crore rupees. They conduct various offline and online campaigns to drive their marketing objectives. A major portion of their revenue is generated from serving recurring customers. Many of their customers even refer the services to their friends and family and are genuinely interested in the company’s success.
As of now, they aren’t looking for investors, their goal is to be a self-sustainable and profitable venture.
“we’re looking towards reaching a breakeven by the 1st quarter of 2018-19. But that’s not our only goal, we aim to be a company that solves a problem by providing valuable services, and at the same time help our employees grow as individuals and be better at what they do”.
“We are building a platform people can depend on for their learning needs. Hence, there are numerous ways the public and our customers can help us build this community of learners and teachers/institutes. Customers who have used our services can help us by reviewing teachers on various parameters to help us with quality control. They can support us by sending us teacher/institute contacts who can register with us. They can also spread the word so that we are able to fulfill our mission of connecting the right teacher to the right student”. Said by founder.
Founder’s message
Pedagoge’s core value and mission are to “stay humble and hustle hard”. Our consultants are continuously striving towards connecting the right teacher to every student by providing personalized support to both teachers and students. This is what essentially differentiates us from other companies who provide similar services.
