LEAD School raises $30 million from GSV Ventures, Westbridge

LEAD School, an education technology startup that works with private schools, has raised $30 million from US-based venture firm GSV Ventures and existing backer Westbridge Capital, the company said on April 26. The Mumbai-based firm did not disclose its valuation.

LEAD School works with more than 2,000 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.

Founded by Sumeet Mehta and Smita Deorah in 2012, the company started with running affordable schools and teaching middle-school students. It built its technology solution in 2017, which is now also seeing traction led by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has turbocharged the movement to online learning.  

“Smita and I set up LEAD School to bring excellent education to small towns and affordable schools in India. We are impatient to reach out to the 1.5 million schools and 260 million school-going children in India so that we can transform the arc of education in this country. Globally, GSV is known as a specialised EdTech fund that backs innovation-oriented education companies. We hope to benefit from their deep insights and leverage their network to bring more innovation to our students in India,” co-founder and CEO Mehta said.

LEAD last raised $28 million from Westbridge and Elevar Equity in August 2020

“LEAD School is rapidly emerging as a paradigm for transforming K-12 education. Based in India and partnered with affordable school owners (a segment that is larger than the entire US K-12 system), LEAD serves over 800,000 students today. LEAD has experienced tremendous growth because of its consistent delivery of high academic outcomes to students and high ‘return on education’ to teachers, school owners and parents,” said Deborah Quazzo, managing partner, GSV Ventures.