B2B Edtech Startup LEAD School Bags $30 Mn; Targets Expanding

Mumbai-based edtech startup LEAD School, which offers technology solutions to help schools and teachers digitise the learning experience, has raised $30 Mn in Series D funding round co-led by GSV Ventures and WestBridge.

The company will use the latest funding to accelerate growth by building a pan India brand, rollout new product offerings, strategic acquisitions and hiring talent across domains. It has also been strengthening the leadership team with few senior level appointments including Ritwik Khare as chief commercial officer, Harsh Kundra as chief technology officer and Vipul Redey as chief excellence officer among others.

LEAD School had raised $28 Mn in Series C funding round led by West Bridge, with participation from Elevar Equity, in August 2020. The company has raised $66 Mn till date, with $7 Mn Series B round in 2019 and $1 Mn Series A round in 2017. The edtech startup had acquired student assessment startup QuizNext in December 2020.

Founded in 2012 by Sumeet Mehta and Smita Deorah, LEAD School offers integrated curriculum and technology solutions to affordable private schools enabling them to impart better and advanced education. The company claims that its integrated system for schools has driven 3X growth in 2020 by helping schools deliver uninterrupted learning whether online, hybrid or in physical classrooms.

LEAD School has collaborated with 2,000+ schools, catering to over 800k students. The company aims to cater to 25,000 schools in the next five years, in line with its mission of making education accessible and affordable to every child in the country. The company is also planning to target more private schools in Tier 2 cities and beyond. Currently, 80-85% of its customers include affordable private schools in Tier 2, 3 and 4 towns.

Commenting on the latest funding, LEAD School CEO Mehta, said, “We are impatient to reach out to the 1.5 Mn schools and 260 Mn school going children in India so that we can transform the arc of education in this country… We hope to benefit from their [GSV Ventures] deep insights and leverage their network to bring more innovation to our students in India.”

According to Inc42 Plus, the Indian online learning market is expected to be worth $10.4 Bn by 2025, growing 3.7X from $2.8 Bn opportunity in 2020. Among the edtech sub-sectors, K-12 education startups with $4.3 Bn in total market size will have the single highest market share — 41% of the total edtech market in India. Few startups focussed on school-level online learning are Vedantu, LearnCBSE, BYJU’S, Toppr, Tiwari Academy, Meritnation and Gradeup, who collectively captured 51.25% of the traffic share pre-Covid.