MathSprout — живые онлайн-занятия по математике для индийских учеников 1–10 классов

Who pays

Parents of children aged 6–16 in metro and Tier-II Indian cities, household income above ₹12 lakh a year, who already spend on after-school tuition. The parent pays monthly via UPI autopay or card, or prepays six months at a 10% discount (the Cuemath way of billing). Tutors are supply, not customers — mostly women with a maths or engineering degree teaching from home.

How it makes money

Three plans, priced before 18% GST: 1:1 monthly at ₹6,400 ($73) for 8 classes, 1:1 six-month prepay at ₹34,560 (₹5,760 a month, $65.5) and Pod of four monthly at ₹3,200 ($36). Mix 25% / 30% / 45% gives about $54 per paying child a month. Tutors earn ₹320 per 1:1 class and ₹480 per pod class (₹120 per child), i.e. about $21 per child a month blended — roughly 39% of the fee. Every paying child costs about 5.4 unpaid demo classes (₹250 each to the tutor), ≈ $15 per sale. A sale is a paid first month or a paid six-month plan after the demo.

Key assumptions

• Price anchor: Cuemath's own India pricing lands at ₹800–900 per 40-minute 1:1 class billed for 26 or 52 weeks; MathSprout's ₹800 per 1:1 class (₹720 when prepaid for six months) and ₹400 per pod class sit at the low end. FX ₹88 per dollar.
• Tutor pay: Indeed puts Cuemath tutors at about ₹215 an hour and Vedantu tutors report ₹400–500 an hour; ₹320 per 45-minute 1:1 class and ₹480 per pod class are what it takes to keep good tutors — the cheaper end of the market churns tutors monthly.
• Funnel: Meta lead ads at about $2.5 CPM in India (Meta CPMs in India $0.8–2.6), 1.1% CTR, 1.8% of clicks book a demo (cost per demo booking ≈ $12.6, i.e. ₹1,100 — the low end of the ₹1,800–4,500 per lead an Indian growth head reports, because a free demo is an easier ask) and 9% of bookings pay: show-up 60% times about 15% demo-to-paid — median, not top-quartile.
• Google search for 'online maths tuition' at $0.45 per click with 3% click-to-booking and 11% booking-to-paid; YouTube parenting creators and school-WhatsApp community partners paid ₹2,640 ($30) per enrolment. Blended channel CAC, with referrals and SEO, lands near ₹6,500 — inside the ₹4,000–18,000 per enrolment Upgrowth reports for Indian edtech.
• Retention differs by plan: six-month prepay families stay to month 6 and 55% renew; monthly families churn 8–10% a month around exam season and summer holidays. Blended: 89% after month 1, 65% at month 6, 57% at month 7 after prepay renewals and 39% at month 12, then 5% monthly churn.
• Counsellors (inside sales) earn ₹35,000–45,000 a month plus incentive and close 55–70 enrolments each; their cost is in the team, so the fully loaded CAC in the table is higher than the channel CAC. Upgrowth notes that counsellor salaries are often the biggest hidden part of Indian edtech CAC.
• Variable costs per paying child besides tutor pay: Razorpay 2% ($1.1), video/whiteboard infrastructure $0.9, tutor training and quality audits $0.6, refunds and failed autopays ≈ 3% of fees ($1.6). Employer PF and ESI ≈ 13% on salaries.

Risks

• Tutor quality and churn: a good tutor is the product. If tutor attrition rises above 5% a month, re-matching children causes cancellations; the plan budgets a tutor-success team but no premium for star tutors.
• CAC inflation in Indian edtech after the 2021–22 boom and BYJU's collapse: parents are sceptical of counsellor calls, and a 30% drop in demo show-up would push CAC above $75.
• Seasonality: April admissions and the board-exam cycle concentrate sales; the model uses an even monthly curve and understates cash swings.
• Pricing pressure from free YouTube teachers and from offline neighbourhood tuition at ₹1,500–3,000 a month in Tier-II cities.
• Peers are mostly loss-making (BYJU's, Vedantu, Unacademy cut back hard after 2022); this model stays profitable only with the counsellor team sized to demand and tutor payouts under 40% of the fee.

How to adapt this model

• Replace plan prices and the monthly / prepay / pod mix with your own, then tutor pay per class and classes per plan — tutor payout as a share of the fee is the margin lever.
• Measure demo show-up and demo-to-paid for a month before scaling ad spend, and count the unpaid demo classes as an acquisition cost.
• Size counsellors at 55–70 enrolments each; for another country change CPM, tutor pay and payroll on-costs first.

Sources

• Cuemath India pricing (₹800–900 per class, plans of 26/52 weeks, prices excl. 18% GST) — https://www.cuemath.com/en-in/pricing/
• Cuemath tutor hourly pay ≈ ₹215 (Indeed) — https://in.indeed.com/salaries/Tutor-Salaries-at-Cuemath ; Vedantu tutors ₹400–500/hour — https://www.theweek.in/theweek/business/teaching-goes-viral.html
• Demo-to-trial 18–26%, trial-to-paid 22–34%, CAC per lead ₹1,800–4,500; CAC excludes counsellor salaries — https://upgrowth.in/edtech-gtm-execution-channels-funnels-retention/
• Meta CPM India $0.8–2.6 — https://stackmatix.com/blog/platform-ad-cost-benchmarks-country-industry-2026 ; https://admakeai.com/blog/cost-per-impression-cpm-explained
• PlanetSpark growth via Tier-II India ($18M ARR FY22) — https://ts.yourstory.com/2022/01/planetspark-1m-classes-13-countries-communication-skills-segment