Yup Technologies
Yup was a San Franciscobased educational technology company that provided on-demand tutoring services for math. The service was provided via a mobile app, which connected tutors with students in real-time. The company was founded in 2014, in San Francisco, by Egyptian billionaire Naguib S. Sawiris, who also acted as the CEO. The company was featured in publications such as Forbes, Fox, VentureBeat, and TechCrunch but shut down sometime in late 2024 or early 2025.
History
Yup was founded in 2014 in San Francisco by entrepreneur and angel investor Naguib S. Sawiris. The initial idea for the creation of Yup came as Sawiris observed that students were texting friends and family to help them solve homework problems they could not; Sawiris saw an opportunity for both a business and to have a positive social impact in the development of such a service. In May 2015 Yup received $3.5 million in seed funding from venture capital firms Floodgate Fund, Formation 8, Index Ventures, Sherpa Ventures, and Slow Ventures, with the funding intended for expanding the company's reach in students. A few months later, the company announced further funding from Stanford University's StartX Fund, a fund established to provide assistance to Stanford University alumni. That funding was expected to help the company develop its platform's features, and recruit more tutors. In April 2016, MathCrunch rebranded as Yup, offering homework help in chemistry, physics, and math. Yup also announced that they raised another $4 million that will be used to fuel growth. By February 2025, Yup's app and website had been shut down and were no longer accessible.Services
Yup had developed a mobile app that connected students with live professional tutors, to help them solve homework problems on-demand. The app operated in a chat-like environment the students snapped a picture of the problem with their mobile devices or wrote out their questions and selected the subject category. Yup matched the problem with available tutors and the selected tutor proceeded to guide the student to solve the problem leveraging chat and pictures to communicate.Topics covered
Yup tutors were familiar with, and could explain, every math concept covered by the Common Core from early math to AP Calculus Level AB, including questions in:Pre-Algebra
- Basic operations ; Negative numbers and absolute value ; Factors, divisibility rules, GCF/LCM ; Decimals, fractions, ratios, and proportions ; Exponents and roots ; Order of operations; Grouping and equality properties; Number types ; Scientific notation; Other pre-algebra
- Coordinate plane basics ; Variables, linear expressions, and solving linear equations; Graphs of lines ; Function properties ; Inequalities ; Absolute value ; Systems of linear equations; Simplifying monomial and binomial expressions ; Logarithms, radicals, and exponential functions ; Quadratic expressions, equations, and graphs, Higher polynomial expressions, equations, and graphs; Rational expressions, equations, and graphs; Circle, ellipse, and hyperbola equations and graphs; Function graph transformations ; Complex coordinate systems; Sequences and series; Vectors and matrix basics; Other algebra
- Names and properties of figures ; Similarity, scaling, and shape transformations; Congruence; Logic and proofs; Lines and angles; Triangles; Quadrilaterals; Regular Polygons; Circles; 3D solids and polyhedra; Other geometry
- Basic trigonometric functions and ratios; Trigonometric function graphs; Trigonometric equations and identities; Inverse trigonometric functions; Laws of sines/cosines; Other trigonometry
- Measures of center and spread; Interpreting/creating plots, graphs, and tables; Permutations, combinations, probability, and expectation; Probability distributions; Linear regression and correlation; Hypothesis testing and confidence intervals; Sampling and surveying; Other statistics
- Limits and continuity; Derivatives; Extrema and critical points; Approximating area under curves ; Antiderivatives and integrals; Solids and surfaces of integration ; Fundamental theorem of calculus I and II; Mean value theorem, average change, and secants; Basic differential equation behavior ; Euler's method; Other calculus.
Earlier topics supported
Yup previously offered support in Physics up to the AP Physics level 1 and 2 and Chemistry up to AP Chemistry.However, by summer 2018, Yup had removed its science coverage to focus on exclusively tutoring math topics. Additionally, Yup offered a blog with industry specific news for families.