Location
Trivandrum, Kerala
Year Founded
2016
Sector
Education Tech
Seafund Entry
August 2021
SUBSector
ML, Analytics
Coinvestors
Pratithi Investments. 3one4
Company Overview
Pupilfirst is tapping into the opportunities that the New Education Policy (NEP) is throwing up. They are working with the regulators and the schooling system in India and deploying new age courses like computer programming, AR and VR, Electric Vehicles. Additionally, they are developing tools to equip faculty with digital first education standards. Pupilfirst plans to involve these graduates in the development and maintenance of digital public assets for greater good.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Traditional classroom education struggles with scalability, industry relevance, and engagement, leaving students ill-equipped for emerging technology careers. Faculty often lack modern teaching tools and real-world expertise, while assessments remain inefficient and outdated.
investment rationalE
Pupilfirst addresses India’s $225B education market, with EdTech projected to reach $30B by 2030. Its SaaS-based AI-driven LMS caters to 40M+ higher education students and 1M+ faculty aligning with the National Education Policy (NEP 2020). With strong founding team background in large-scale academic programs and proprietary technology stack, Pupilfirst is positioned for high adoption, scalable impact, and sustainable revenue growth in India’s rapidly evolving education sector.
FOUNDER BACKGROUND
Sanjay Vijayakumar
CEO
A serial entrepreneur, co-author of India's Student Startup Policy and Governing Board Member of Kerala Technical University.
Suma Sundarajan
COO
With a double masters from US and a decade of work experience at IIT Chennai's rural technology incubator, Suma has deep operational expertise across students, academia and industry.
Hari Gopal
CTO
Hari is a full-stack software engineer with 14 years of experience and leads engineering efforts at Pupilfirst.
Dr. Reena Singh
Head, Teaching
Before joining Pupilfirst, she was an Assistant Professor at MIT, Manipal. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from IIT Mandi, and now leads our teaching efforts.