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The Indian education system is the largest in the world with 170 miliion students and 1.5 million schools. Education sector in India is growing at a huge pace as it makes the foundation of social and economic growth of the Nation.
The School systems in India are getting Tech-Savy with the technological transformation. The use of technology in the education system stimulates student engagement in learning. TagHive has brought Class Saathi app for helping students improve their performance and competency.
Read to know more about TagHive, founder, the startup story, and more.
TagHive – Company Highlights
| Startup Name | TagHive |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | South Korea |
| Industry | Edtech |
| Founder | Pankaj Agarwal |
| Founded | 2017 |
| Total Funding Raised | $3 Million |
| Website | tag-hive.com |
TagHive – About
TagHive – Industry
TagHive – The Idea and Startup Story
TagHive – Products and Service
TagHive – Founder and Team
TagHive – Name, Tagline, and Logo
TagHive – Business Model
TagHive – Customer Acquisition
TagHive – Challenges Faced
TagHive – Funding
TagHive – Advisors and Mentors
TagHive – Competitors
TagHive – Tools Used in the Company
TagHive – Recognition and Achievements
TagHive – Future Plans
TagHive – About
TagHive Inc., is a Samsung-funded education technology company, incorporated on April 25, 2017 is headquartered in South Korea and has an office in India. The company’s offerings include AI-powered self-assessment solutions and clicker-based classroom response systems. The company offers its solutions under the “Class Saathi” brand in India and under the “Class Key” brand globally.
TagHive has 22 registered patents and trademarks and 10 others are pending. The company’s solutions are used in over 1,000 schools (adding 2-3 schools daily) and over 340,000 students have downloaded the Class Saathi self-assessment solution.
Their vision is to be the learning platform of choice for schools around the world, by building a unified platform that connects all stakeholders in the education ecosystem to improve learning outcomes. They believe that education is the greatest equalizer, and that technology shouldn’t be only for students for privileged backgrounds. Class Saathi is designed to empower the current system rather than disrupt it.
TagHive – Industry
There are over 1 million public schools in India, with over 170 million students; who on an average, do not have access to resources to learn that a majority of more expensive private school students do. With an average per student spend of Rs. 15,000 from Governments per year, there is little to no space for solutions that aren’t built to be low cost.
Class Saathi is designed to work exactly in this space, for teachers, administrators and parents to create a supportive ecosystem of learning for students who, if not attended to, could be at risk of dropping out. A report by KPMG shows that India is the second largest market for edtech in the world, behind the United States. By 2030, the Indian edtech industry is poised to become $30 billion in size, but this current trend is focused on the private and higher paying segment of customers. Students in higher need across public schools are not a focus area, which is exactly what Class Saathi focuses on.
TagHive – Founder and Team
TagHive Inc. currently has 25 full time employees, 9 in Korea and 16 in India. Primarily, the Indian team looks at partnerships, operations, development and communications; while the Korean team focuses on research, innovations and operations beyond India.
They believe that trust and ownership is paramount, which is why even though the Indian team is fully remote, they have full liberty to lead and be accountable for their role. They are an organization on a mission and truly value people with passion and drive to transform the education ecosystem. It is a long and difficult journey, but if anyone is ready to walk on this path with us, we’re more than happy to have them!
TagHive – The Idea and Startup Story
As a student who began his journey in a small school in a village in Bihar, I had the incredible opportunities to then study at IIT Kanpur, Seoul National University, and Harvard Business School. Studying in 3 countries made Pankaj Agarwal the person he is. Education is always highly valued by him.
When Pankaj Agarwal started TagHive in South Korea, one visit brought him back to the school where he studied, and even after decades, he realized that hardly anything there had changed. He was surprised to see that while the world had changed, schools remained the same, and students were still not getting the resources they needed. This was when he decided to create Class Saathi to be used in schools even without internet and electricity. They took inputs and got feedback from teachers and government officials in the space, and built features and functions according to what they need, and the response was great because most solutions weren’t designed to be used in under-resourced schools and classrooms.
Parnas Ghosh
TagHive – Name, Tagline, and Logo
The ‘TagHive’ name came from their original idea to use physical (hardware) and software ‘tags’ to enhance experiences across the real and virtual world in pretty much all domains, including but not limited to play, education, entertainment, fitness, and more. They wanted to represent energy and connectedness, which is why they chose that name.
The ‘Class Saathi’ name however, surprisingly was something that came to me in a dream. Originally it was something the founder had put as a placeholder, but as they continued developing the product, it turned out that their users actually resonated with it, and despite their reservations about it not sounding ‘global’; the idea behind it was something even TagHive’s investors and supporters in Korea loved.
TagHive – Products and Service
Class Saathi is a clicker based smart classroom platform that makes formative assessment easy and fast.
Class Saathi is a combination of a clicker device for each student and a mobile application for teachers, parents and administrators. After teaching a concept in a class, the teacher can ask a few questions using Class Saathi to gauge the understanding level of each and every student. The administrators and the parents can also see the learning data on their respective screens. Class Saathi app has over 50,000 questions (in English and Hindi combined) on Maths and Science for students of Class 6 to Class 10 and is based on NCERT curriculum. Over 6.2 million questions have been solved on Class Saathi as of April 5, 2022.
Class Saathi is aligned with New Education Policy’s objectives of micro-learning and continuous assessments. “Data First” approach ensures greater accountability at all levels. It is the world’s first and only clicker solution that works on a mobile phone, and doesn’t require internet or electricity to function inside classrooms. This enables it to be used across absolutely any context, especially in schools with the highest need in rural contexts.
The app is also powered by AI, enabling Personalized Adaptive Learning (PAL) for students beyond the classroom. It adapts to student learning levels to give them questions that can challenge them and help them learn, which allows for learning to happen at home without any teacher assistance. Parents are also able to understand student progress through the rich data dashboards, and support their children in learning.
TagHive – Business Model
Class Saathi primarily works with governments and organizations to achieve scale and impact. Through funding by either the government bodies themselves, grants, or private channel partners, they implement its solutions across a wide range of schools.
TagHive – Customer Acquisition
They started directly working with governments because that was their target group, and because they were developing the solution with their on-ground feedback. Through this, they were able to reach out to their first set of users, and word of mouth helped us scale up and get even more users.
They didn’t focus on paid marketing to spread the word about Class Saathi, but rather let their impact do the talking. Being a unique solution addressing age-old challenges in the Indian education ecosystem, they were able to begin conversations with like-minded early adopters from Governments and organizations, who then helped us begin pilots.
These pilots were able to show impact in a very short amount of time (learning outcomes and attendance increased by 8% and 10% respectively in 30 days alone), which then enabled us to continue with larger-scale implementation and also spread the word about the potential of the solution. Additionally, since Class Saathi is extremely affordable and constantly evolving based on need, they were able to invest stakeholders who saw the value in it.
TagHive – Challenges Faced
One of the biggest challenges was to show stakeholders in the education system like teachers and administrators the value of Class Saathi. Most, if not all of them had already worked with some other education technology solution and were always of the opinion that it would be an additional burden. However, since Class Saathi is designed to empower rather than disrupt, they had to do multiple conversations to invest in Class Saathi and help them see that it will only help them.
They truly believe that teachers are still the cornerstones of a great education, and their idea has always been to make life easier for them so that they can strategically focus on the learning outcomes of their students, armed with data and a platform that lets them build a more conducive learning environment.
TagHive – Funding
| Date | Stage | Amount | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| June, 2017 | Seed Funding | $0.5 Million | Samsung Ventures |
| December, 2021 | Series A | $2.5 Million | Forest Partners |
Funding and support from Samsung Ventures and Forest Partners has allowed us to expand their development to create an even better product that truly addresses the needs of stakeholders in the education system today; and to build a high-performing team to multiply and expand this impact across India.
TagHive – Advisors and Mentors
Yes, they have multiple advisors and mentors from India and Korea, who’ve helped us with challenging their assumptions and connecting us to people and resources they need. They come from a variety of backgrounds and have been instrumental in helping us grow.
TagHive – Competitors
While there are other edtech companies in India and globally, their solution is uniquely addressing problems in the public education ecosystem. Having said that however, some of their competitors are:
TagHive Competitors in India:
- ConveGenius
- EI Mindspark
- Gooru Navigator
TagHive Competitors Globally:
- AssessPrep
- EdCite
- ClassKick
- Formative
TagHive – Tools Used in the Company
The tools they use in TagHive are:
- Google Suite
- Asana
- Slack
- Trello
- Zoom
TagHive – Recognition and Achievements
Many awards and recognition has been received by TagHive:
- TagHive was Asia Pacific finalist in the Harvard NVC in March 2021
- Won the 2020 Time2Leap Award (presented by Ministry of SME, Govt. of India)
- Recognized by India AI as top 5 startups reinventing Education in India with AI
- Awarded Education Startup of the Year 2019 at DIDAC India, Asia’s largest and India’s only exhibition and conference for education
- Founder & CEO was on the Fortune India 40 Under 40 list released in June 2021
- 1000+ schools in Korea
TagHive – Future Plans
TagHive operates in South Korea and India, and works with partners like The Ford Foundation, Kaivalya Education Foundation, HCL, Google, Samsung, and the Governments of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha, with even more in the pipeline.
Over the next 3 years, their goals are to:
- Implement Class Saathi (both at-home learning app and in-classroom assessment solution) in State Government and Central Government run schools and networks (State Board Schools, Kendriya Vidyalayas, Tribal Welfare Schools, and more) in India first and then go global
- Integrate into NDEAR, NEP 2020 implementation, and relevant National Education Technology frameworks through technology platform sharing, service provision, or technology partnerships
- Partner with large scale nonprofits and foundations to implement Class Saathi across their school networks
They are currently and constantly developing new features based on requirements and feedback from their stakeholders on the ground. By April end, they will have a completely revamped teacher-facing app, which adds in a wealth of features that they have been asked for. They are also developing new dashboards and reporting functionalities to further ease the lives of their administrators.
FAQs
When was TagHive founded?
TagHive was founded in 2017.
Who is the founder of TagHive?
Pankaj Agarwal is the founder of TagHive.
Who invested in TagHive?
TagHive is funded by Samsung Ventures and Forest Partners.
How much funding has TagHive raised to date?
TagHive has raised a funding of $3 Million.
