From a school teacher to first-time entrepreneur, Usamah "Sam" Chaudhary has come a long way. ClassDojo, an online classroom management tool startup he co-founded with Liam Don has come out of beta and raised $1.6 mn from some well-known Silicon Valley investors.

Those behind the seed funding include Paul Graham, Ron Conway, Jeff Clavier, Kapor Capital, Start Fund, General Catalyst Partners, Morado Venture Partners, Lerer Ventures, NewSchools Venture Fund and Learn Capital.

Founded in 2011, ClassDojo helps teachers, parents and students improve classroom behavior and build positive learning habits and character strength. ClassDojo’s online tool helps teachers boost class engagement, and build positive behavior in students.

Consider it as an online version of the good old report card. The only difference is that it goes beyond marks for various subject tests, and concentrates on keeping a tab on in-class behavior. Using the app with just one click of a smartphone, laptop, or tablet helps improve student performance.

How does it work? ClassDojo’s app logs data to create behavior report of students, each given a cute avatar. Without the hassle of having to do loads of data entry, teachers can give instant feedback, with encouragements and reward points for various aspects of classwork, such as team play.

The Palo Alto-based company’s app can be customized for various classes and its behavior-tracking analytics and reports can be shared with parents and administrators.
The fast-growing education technology company’s app is used by millions of teachers and students in over 30 countries.

Thousands of teachers who use ClassDojo daily to build good behaviors and learning habits with their students are giving positive reviews. Some of them have shared their experiences on the startup’s blog.

ClassDojo has also started a project to translate the app into other languages to help teachers around the world.

Before starting ClassDojo, Sam, who holds a double first-class degree in economics from the University of Cambridge, taught in high school and worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Co in London in the education sector.