This recent funding round pushes LEAD School’s all-time fundraising total to $170 million, twice the startup’s value in nine months to $1.1 billion.
The present B2C products are too expensive for the majority of students, and they are disproportionately geared at students in high school preparing for competitive tests.
It has been proven that many Indian schools in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities do not improve the standard of classroom learning. LEAD School, a nine-year-old business, is bridging this gap by utilising an infrastructure that already exists across the country: schools. The model is also effective.
Existing backers WestBridge Capital and GSV Ventures led LEAD School’s Series E fundraising on Thursday. The latest funding round brings LEAD School’s total funding to $170 million, more than doubling the company’s worth to $1.1 billion in only nine months.
In the next school year, LEAD School anticipates an annual revenue run-rate of $80 million. The firm intends to use the additional funding to improve its product and curriculum. It wants to reach 25 million students and increase its annual revenue to $1 billion by 2020.
India is one of the world’s largest education marketplaces, with over 250 million school-aged children. Indian parents place a high value on their children’s education because they perceive it as a route to economic advancement and a better life for their children.
“If India has to achieve its true potential, its schools have to significantly transform so that every child can achieve their true potential. But in K-12, everyone has been talking about edtech that is direct-to-student by circumventing schools. And everyone focuses on test prep and tuitions. Because people have accepted that schools cannot be improved. But we thought differently. A child spends six hours in school and one hour in tuition. If we can transform schools, imagine what is possible?! That’s why we focused on school edtech,” said Sumeet Mehta, founder , LEAD schools.
