Growing Stars was established in November 2002 by Biju Mathew, an Indian-origin software engineer, and his friend Saji Philip with
seed money of $500,000.[1][2][5][6] Mathew recruited tutors from his hometown
Kochi for math, science, and English, and the company began operations in January 2004 as a
one-on-one homework outsourcing and
test preparation tutoring service for students based in the United States.[5][7] It later expanded to include students from countries such as Canada, Australia, and Great Britain.[1][8][9] It ran a pilot for the
Upward Bound program at
Marist College,
Poughkeepsie, New York.[1][10][11][12]