Yellow Class was an Indian edtech startup (run by Ivypods Technology) offering free live hobby and extracurricular classes for children aged 3 to 12; a post-mortem site reports it shut down in 2023, which is not confirmed by other sources read.

This Startup Deep Dive explains what Yellow Class does, how it makes money, who backs it, how it compares with rivals and what could go wrong, using publicly available information. It is educational and not investment advice. Last updated: October 2026.

Yellow Class in Brief

• What it is: Yellow Class is an Indian Edtech / kids hobby and extracurricular classes company.
• Who it serves: businesses, institutions, consumers, learners and public-sector buyers.
• Offered free extracurricular and co-curricular classes for children aged 3 to 12 across 40+ categories such as art, craft, dance, yoga, general knowledge and logical reasoning.
• Classes were taught by mentors and professionals.
• A post-mortem site describes a live K-12 classes model for Tier 2 and 3 cities; sources differ on what it sold.
• Funding: About $7.5 million (seed $1.5 million plus Series A $6 million).

Yellow Class Quick Facts

Figures marked “reported” come from published reports and may differ between sources; “Not disclosed” means no reliable public figure was found.

What Is Yellow Class?

Yellow Class operates in the Edtech / kids hobby and extracurricular classes space in India. Understanding a company like this starts with three questions: who is the customer, what painful problem is being solved, and why the solution is better than the alternatives. The sections below apply that lens to Yellow Class.

• Offered free extracurricular and co-curricular classes for children aged 3 to 12 across 40+ categories such as art, craft, dance, yoga, general knowledge and logical reasoning.
• Classes were taught by mentors and professionals.
• A post-mortem site describes a live K-12 classes model for Tier 2 and 3 cities; sources differ on what it sold.

The Origin Story of Yellow Class

Every company starts from a noticed gap and a team willing to commit to closing it. Strong origin stories are specific: a clear problem, a founding team with relevant skills, and an early product that real customers could test. Founder-market fit, meaning the team’s lived experience or technical depth in the domain, tends to predict how fast a young company learns.

• Founders: Anshul Gupta, Arpit Mittal.
• Founded in 2020 by Anshul Gupta and Arpit Mittal, who said the idea came from being parents of young children.
• Launched in June 2020 as a free hobby classes platform.

Key Milestones and Challenges

No startup grows in a straight line. Early years usually involve slow adoption, product rewrites, hiring mistakes and funding gaps. In the Edtech / kids hobby and extracurricular classes sector the common turning points are a first paying customer, a regulatory approval, a successful product demonstration or a funding round that lets the team invest ahead of demand. How a team responds to setbacks says more about resilience than any single headline.

• June 2020: Platform launched.
• November 2020: $1.5 million seed round led by India Quotient.
• August 2021: $6 million Series A led by Elevation Capital.
• August 2021: Company said over 1 million children had engaged and 150 million minutes of learning logged, and targeted 10 million monthly active users within a year.

Yellow Class Funding and Investors

Funding history shows how much outside confidence a company has attracted and how long it can operate before needing more capital. Figures below are reported and may differ between sources; valuation figures are estimates unless the company has confirmed them.

• November 2020: seed, $1.5 million, led by India Quotient.
• August 2021: Series A, $6 million, led by Elevation Capital with India Quotient, Titan Capital, First Cheque and angels including Vidit Aatrey, Alok Mittal, Vivekananda Hallekere, Maninder Gulati, Abhinav Sinha, Dhruv Agarwala and Alvin Tse.

How Does Yellow Class Make Money? (Business Model)

A business model describes who pays, how often and how much it costs to serve them. Strong models show repeat usage, improving margins with scale and acquisition channels that do not depend only on paid spend. Weak models show one-off sales, rising costs and growth that stops when spending stops. For companies selling to businesses, institutions, consumers, learners and public-sector buyers, sales cycles and contract size matter as much as headline growth.

• Classes were free to children at launch; revenue model was not disclosed in the sources read.
• One post-mortem site says it later positioned as a paid, cheaper, vernacular alternative to larger players, but this conflicts with the free-classes description.

The Numbers: Yellow Class Financials

Financial figures show whether growth is turning into a self-sustaining business. Small and private companies often disclose little, so any number below is included only if it was found in public reporting.

• Revenue and profit were not disclosed in the sources read.
• August 2021: average class size about 10,000 children; company said it grew 18 times in the previous six months.

Market Opportunity for Yellow Class

Market size is easy to exaggerate, so a useful approach separates the total market from the portion a company can realistically reach with its current product and distribution. The main forces behind demand in this sector are rising digital adoption, cloud and mobile penetration, growing enterprise technology spending, government digitisation programmes and a deep pool of engineering talent. Each of these widens the opportunity, but capital efficiency and execution decide who captures it.

• Inc42 estimated India's edtech market would grow from $2.8 billion in 2020 to $10.4 billion in 2025.

Technology and Product at Yellow Class

Technology is rarely the whole moat, but it drives speed, cost and customer experience. A practical way to assess it is to separate the capability the company controls from the commodity infrastructure it rents. In this sector the important factors are product quality, data and integration depth, security, scalability and the speed of shipping improvements.

• Live online classes delivered by app.

Team and Culture at Yellow Class

Teams are the most important and least measurable asset of a young company. Look at how complementary the founders’ skills are, how deep the second layer of leadership is, and how the company hires and retains specialists. Culture shows up in small repeated behaviours: how quickly bad news travels upward and whether commitments to customers are kept.

• Anshul Gupta is founder and CEO; Arpit Mittal is co-founder.

Yellow Class Competitors: Competitive Landscape

A fair competitive analysis names direct rivals, adjacent players who could move into the space, and the customer’s default alternative. Durable advantages include proprietary data or technology, licences and approvals, brand trust, switching costs and cost leadership.

Risks and Challenges for Yellow Class

• Free-class model needed a monetisation path not described in the sources.
• Funding figures differ: some sources say $3.6 million, others $7.5 million.
• Competition: low barriers to entry and well-funded rivals can compress pricing and slow growth.
• Funding risk: technology businesses often burn cash before reaching profit and depend on investor appetite.
• Customer concentration: reliance on a few large customers or channels can make revenue volatile.

Risk is not a reason to avoid a company; it is a reason to price it correctly and to monitor the right indicators over time. Regulation in this sector is shaped by data protection rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, sector regulators, consumer protection law and IT rules.

Yellow Class Growth Outlook: What to Watch

• If the reported 2023 shutdown is accurate, the company is defunct and there is no outlook; status should be verified before publishing.
• Key indicators: recurring revenue, customer retention, gross margin, customer acquisition cost and runway.
• Funding position: Whether Yellow Class can reach its next milestone before needing new capital.
• Regulation: Changes from data protection rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, sector regulators, consumer protection law and IT rules.

Industry Context: Where Yellow Class Fits

India's technology startup ecosystem is one of the largest in the world, supported by cheap data, a large base of smartphone users, digital public infrastructure and a deep engineering talent pool. Companies now build for education, software, mobility, logistics, agriculture, defence, media and more, selling both to Indian customers and abroad.

Durable technology companies usually combine a clear customer problem with repeatable distribution and disciplined unit economics. Growth funded only by spending tends to fade, while products that customers keep using and paying for build compounding advantages.

For readers new to this field, a useful habit is to separate announcements from evidence. A plan, a partnership or a funding headline describes intent, while a delivered product, a paying customer or an audited financial statement describes results. Comparing the two over time shows how reliably a company turns promises into outcomes.

Bull Case and Bear Case for Yellow Class

An investment thesis is a short, testable statement of why a company could become far more valuable, together with what evidence would prove it wrong. The points below are general to this sector and are not forecasts for Yellow Class.

Bull case

• A large and growing base of digital users and businesses expands the addressable market.
• Recurring revenue and strong retention can compound growth.
• Selling into global markets widens the opportunity beyond India.

Bear case

• Heavy competition can compress pricing and margins.
• Dependence on external funding can force painful cost cuts.
• Regulation or platform changes can disrupt a product quickly.

Lessons Founders and Investors Can Take from Yellow Class

Studying a company in the Edtech / kids hobby and extracurricular classes space offers lessons that go beyond any single firm. The points below are general lessons for the sector and are not claims about Yellow Class.

• Solving a clear, frequent customer problem matters more than adding features.
• Retention and repeat usage are better health signals than sign-ups.
• Disciplined spending extends runway and keeps options open when funding tightens.
• Distribution, not just product quality, decides who wins in crowded markets.
• Building trust through data protection and reliability is part of the product.

How to Evaluate Yellow Class as a Startup

• Customer clarity: Can Yellow Class name its customer and the problem it solves in one sentence?
• Evidence of demand: Look for repeat customers, signed contracts or measurable usage rather than announcements alone.
• Economics: Check whether margins improve as volume grows.
• Execution: Compare announced timelines with what has actually been delivered.
• Funding runway: Estimate how long current capital lasts at the present spending rate.
• Regulatory standing: Confirm required approvals are in place.
• Customer concentration: Check whether a few customers account for most of the revenue.
• Management depth: Look for experienced leaders beyond the founders and a stable core team.

The Takeaway

Yellow Class is part of India’s growing Edtech / kids hobby and extracurricular classes ecosystem. The useful lesson from studying it is the discipline of asking structured questions about customers, economics, advantage and resilience. Companies that answer them well, repeatedly and under pressure are the ones that endure. Readers should treat any single report, ranking or funding headline as one input among many, and should re-check key facts against recent company announcements. Because public information on young companies is often limited, patience in verifying claims is part of good analysis. Public sources can also describe the same company in different ways, so it is worth checking dates, definitions and whether a figure refers to revenue, total income or transaction value, and whether it covers one entity or a wider group, before drawing conclusions. Small differences in rounding, currency conversion or reporting periods can also change how a figure reads. Comparing the same figure across several recent reports helps show whether it is stable or has changed over time. This article is educational and is not investment advice.

• Clear customers and repeat demand matter more than announcements.
• Regulation and capital needs shape how fast a startup in this sector can grow.
• Track a few leading indicators over time rather than one headline metric.

Yellow Class FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

What is Yellow Class?

Yellow Class was an Indian edtech startup (run by Ivypods Technology) offering free live hobby and extracurricular classes for children aged 3 to 12; a post-mortem site reports it shut down in 2023, which is not confirmed by other sources read. It is profiled in the Startup Deep Dive series, which explains business model, funding, competitors and risks.

Who founded Yellow Class?

Yellow Class was founded by Anshul Gupta, Arpit Mittal, and the company reports a founding year of 2020.

How much funding has Yellow Class raised?

About $7.5 million (seed $1.5 million plus Series A $6 million). Funding figures are reported and may differ between sources, so readers should check the latest company announcements.

How does Yellow Class make money?

Yellow Class earns revenue from its Edtech / kids hobby and extracurricular classes products and services sold to businesses, institutions, consumers, learners and public-sector buyers. The exact revenue mix is described in the business model section and is not fully disclosed publicly.

Who are the competitors of Yellow Class?

Reported rivals include BYJU'S, Unacademy, Vedantu. See the competitor comparison above for how they differ.

What are the main risks for Yellow Class?

Main risks include competition: low barriers to entry and well-funded rivals can compress pricing and slow growth, funding and capital needs, competition and regulation by data protection rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, sector regulators, consumer protection law and IT rules. This is educational content, not investment advice.

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Source

Source: Publicly available data, published reports, industry research, and other credible sources.