Lead School, an education technology company based in Mumbai, announced that it has raised $28 million in Series C funding led by WestBridge Capital. Existing investor Elevar Equity also participated in the round.
The startup will use the funds to fuel expansion. It has plans to grow its sales channel and sign up new customers. It will also seek to enhance its technology offerings to help schools better monitor and improve student learning outcomes.
Lead School offers integrated curriculum and technology solutions to affordable private schools, and is targeting the private school market in tier 2 cities and beyond.
“Affordable schools in small towns is where the problem is. In metros, the teachers are doing a great job. But in small towns, the parent aspiration is high, but teacher skill is low, and that’s the sweet spot where we work,” said co-Founder and CEO Sumeet Mehta.
Lead School has developed its own high-quality learning content for students, teaching resources for teachers, technology integrations for schools to monitor the performance of students and a platform where parents can monitor their child’s academic performance.
Sumeet Mehta said 80-85% of its customers are schools in tier II, III and IV towns, with the company having signed up a little over 800 schools so far.
“In the last few months, the ed-tech sector has evolved rapidly, changing the trajectory of the Indian education system multi-fold. We see great potential in Lead School, given their innovative and focused approach in ensuring accessible, quality school-level education for all,” said Sandeep Singhal, Managing Director, WestBridge Capital.
The Covid-19 pandemic has strengthened its position in the market, Lead School said, with schools having to immediately switch to online learning. Client schools were able to complete the year’s curriculum because of the structured learning system that it had already put in place.
“Previously, schools were hesitant to adopt technology, but Covid-19 has shown people that the age-old ways are not going to work,” Mehta added.
Lead School has grown its network of schools from 150 to 800 in the past one year, and it hopes to retain the growth momentum this year. For WestBridge, this is its second big investment in ed-tech after Vedantu, in which it co-led a $42 million round with Tiger Global.
“LEAD School is an Academic Excellence System with a mission to empower India by making excellent education accessible and affordable to every child. We run our own schools and partner with affordable private schools to improve the learning outcomes of students in order to develop them into capable adults, responsible citizens and good human beings,” according to the Company’s LinkedIn page.
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