LEAD School Raises Rs 210 Cr For Transforming Schools In Small Towns

Edtech company LEAD School, which focuses on affordable private schools, has raised $28 million (Rs 210 crore) in a Series C funding round led by Westbridge Capital along with existing investor Elevar Equity. The latest round of funding will be used by the Mumbai-based company to accelerate the development and rollout of new product offerings, increase its school network in Tier 2-3 cities and hire talent across domains.

“We aim to democratize excellent learning by transforming schools in Tier 2-3-4 towns where the majority of India lives,” said LEAD School co-founder and CEO Sumeet Mehta. “Our firm belief is that every child, irrespective of their economic background or location of birth, should have access to an excellent education.”

LEAD School partners with affordable private schools to transform them into centres of excellent learning through its ‘Integrated System’. With this system schools can offer a complete schooling experience to their students, irrespective of whether they’re physically open or shut.

In the last three years, the company said it has seen rapid adoption of its platform by schools and class averages improvement from below 60 per cent to above 70 per cent.

“During this pandemic too, our integrated system has enabled schools to deliver an uninterrupted learning experience for all students. The new round of funding will help us bring more innovation and reach more students and schools,” said Mehta.

Founders Sumeet Mehta and Smita Deorah began their LEAD School journey by running affordable schools and teaching middle school students. In 2017, the company started offering its Integrated System to schools and has seen rapid adoption with more than 800 schools partnering with LEAD School. LEAD School now serves over 300,000 students studying in these affordable private schools.

“In the new world order, the lockdown ensuing the pandemic has given a massive boost to online education,” said Sandeep Singhal, managing director, WestBridge Capital. “In the last few months, the edtech sector has evolved rapidly, changing the trajectory of the Indian education system multifold. We see great potential in LEAD School.”

Sandeep Farias, founder and managing director, Elevar Equity, said what differentiates LEAD is their strong solution orientation -” understanding and addressing each school stakeholder’s pain points in-depth while keeping the child’s learning outcomes at the centre of it all.”