January 13, 2022 / 19:44 IST
LEAD, which helps school classrooms use online learning tools, said on January 13 that it has raised $100 million at a valuation of $1.1 billion, catapulting it to the coveted unicorn club of internet startups.
Unicorn is a term for private companies valued at a billion dollars or more. LEAD raised the money from existing investors WestBridge Capital and GSV Ventures.
The deal makes it India's third unicorn of the year after consumer brand Mamaearth and analytics firm Fractal.
LEAD is also India's sixth online education unicorn after Byju's, Vedantu, Unacademy, Eruditus and UpGrad.
Founded by Sumeet Mehta and Smita Deorah in 2012, LEAD works with more than 5,000 schools in Tier 2 and 3 cities and beyond to make classroom learning technology-enabled. This involves tracking teacher and student progress, managing school operations on the cloud and providing digital resources to make learning more engaging. The company said it has a revenue run rate of $80 million.
“A child spends six hours in school and only one hour in tuitions. Transforming schools, when done right, has massive potential to alter our country’s future. LEAD, with its integrated school system, has broken new ground in this direction," the founders said.
"We believe that in edtech, Saraswati precedes Lakshmi. 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. The deal also comes at a time when online education startups have agreed to be self-regulated under the Internet and Mobile Association of India, after policymakers expressed concern over aggressive sales practices and monopolistic tendencies of edtechs. 
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