LEAD, India’s foremost player in the School EdTech category, has raised US $100 million in a new funding round, dubbed a Series E round.
The Series E funding round was led by returning investor WestBridge Capital and global Ventrure Capital fund GSV Ventures, making this one of their largest EdTech investment to fuel the company’s ambitious vision of transforming core schooling in India with tech-integrated solutions.
This is LEAD’s fifth round of institutional funding since 2017, when it first raised capital in a round led by venture capital firm Elevar.
The Mumbai-based company founded in 2012, has seen rapid adoption in the last 4 years and will enter Academic Year 22-23 with 5000 schools across 500+ cities in India with an annual revenue run-rate of $80 million and serve close to 2 million students.
Over the years, LEAD has been making global-standard education accessible and affordable to students, especially in non-metro cities. The curriculum in a LEAD-powered school is benchmarked with the best in the world, including schools in Singapore, Canada and USA.
LEAD’s valuation has doubled in the last 9 months (currently at $1.1 billion) on the back of strong growth in its operating and financial metrics.
“A child spends 6 hours in school and only 1 hour in tuitions. Transforming schools, when done right, has massive potential to alter our country’s future” LEAD Co-founders Sumeet Yashpal Mehta and Smita Deorah said. “Our intense focus has been on learning outcomes and life success of our students. And this has resulted in not only strong adoption and retention by schools but also interest from investors who value returns with real impact” they added.
WestBridge Capital Managing Director Sandeep Singhal said: “We are extremely proud of LEAD’s success as the largest School EdTech provider in India.
For his part GSV Ventures Managing Partner Deborah Quazzo stated: “LEAD has emerged as the gold standard for transforming K-12 education in India. The company acts as the Intel inside for affordable schools and guarantees 70%+ mastery in all subjects and all grades for low/middle income students and exceeds the guarantee.”
The fresh capital will be used by LEAD to achieve its vision of providing quality affordable education to 25 million+ students with an annual revenue run-rate of $1 Bn. Immediate focus would be towards product and curriculum innovation, growth in its footprint and hiring top talent across functions. In the long term, the company plans to go deeper in the country to serve students in lower fee schools and expand internationally in similar geographies.
