Edtech startup, LEAD School, has raised $30 million as a part of its Series D funding, led by Silicon Valley-based GSV Ventures whose portfolio firms include Coursera, Course Hero, and ClassDojo., along with existing investors WestBridge. This marks GSV Venture’s first investment in the Indian edtech sector.
According to the Mumbai-based company, the new funds will be used to build a pan-India brand, and roll out new products, as the startup looks to make strategic acquisitions and hire top talent across domains. Lead currently caters to 2000+ schools and over 800k students. The venture claims it is well on its way to cater to 25,000 schools in the next five years. This is in line with its mission of making excellent education accessible and affordable to every child in the country.
A brainchild of Sumeet Mehta and Smita Deorah, the eight-year-old company provides integrated curriculum and technology solutions to private schools with books, workbooks, smart classes, teacher training, teacher manuals, ERPs, or Math-Science kits.
Also, Read This: After Aakash, Byju’s Is Now All Set To Acquire Great Learning And Gradeup For USD 400 Million
Globally, GSV is known as a specialized 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,” said Sumeet Mehta, co-founder and chief executive officer, LEAD School.
The current funding round comes less than a year after the company had raised USD 28 million as a part of its Series C round led by WestBridge and Elevar Equity in August, last year. In December, the company had also announced the acquisition of student revision and assessment startup QuizNext. QuizNext is a quiz-based revision app for CBSE and ICSE students. It extensively relies on fun game elements to keep students engaged in learning.
During the financial year ending on March 31, 2020, Lead School recorded a 4.5X jump in its operating revenue to Rs 28.61 crore. The company’s total expenditure in FY20 saw a 4.8X rise to Rs 66.57 while losses during the period rose 5.7X to Rs 36.4 crore.
