New Delhi, Apr 26: Edtech firm Lead School on Monday said it has raised USD 30 million (about Rs 224.3 crore) in funding led by Global VC Fund GSV Ventures along with existing investor WestBridge.
Proceeds from the Series D funding round will be used to accelerate growth by building a pan India brand, rollout of new products, strategic acquisitions and hiring top talent across domains, a statement said.
This is GSV Venture’s first major investment in an India-based ed-tech firm, it added.
Lead School’s unique integrated system for schools has driven 3X growth in 2020. It helps schools deliver learning online, hybrid and in physical classrooms.
The company already has worked with over 2,000 schools, catering to over 8 lakh students, and aims to take this to 25,000 schools in the next five years.
Lead School had raised USD 28 million in series C funding led by WestBridge and Elevar Equity (a majority shareholder) in August 2020. It had also acquired student assessment startup QuizNext in December last year.
Founded by Sumeet Mehta and Smita Deorah in 2012, Lead School initially began operations by running affordable schools and teaching middle-school students. The company then built its platform, the Lead Integrated System, which it began offering in 2017 with a mission to make good schools accessible and affordable to every child.
“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,” LEAD School co-founder and CEO Mehta said.
He added that globally, GSV is known as a specialised EdTech fund that backs innovation-oriented education companies.
GSV manages over USD 400 million in global ed-tech investments through its two funds.
“We hope to benefit from their deep insights and leverage their network to bring more innovation to our students in India. WestBridge has been a great partner and their continued support shows their faith in the difference we are making to our schools and students,” he said.
WestBridge Capital is an experienced investment firm, managing around USD 5 billion capital across funds in India and Mauritius. (PTI)
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