Mumbai-based Edtech player Lead School is the third Indian startup to enter the unicorn club in 2022 after raising $100 million in a Series E funding round led by WestBridge capital.
The round also witnessed participation from GSV Ventures, putting the ten-year-old Edtech startup at a valuation of $1.1 billion and in league with Byju’s, Unacademy, Eruditus, UpGrad and Vedantu as the sixth edtech unicorn of India.
The startup has raised $166 million to date, with $30 million from the Series D round raised in April 2021.
Lead School is the third startup to hit a billion-dollar valuation in the first fortnight of 2022 after Mamaearth and Mumbai and San Francisco-based Fractal.
Funds will be used for imparting quality and affordable education
The company will use the new capital to achieve its vision of providing quality and affordable education to more than 25 million students with an annual revenue run-rate of $1 billion.
The immediate focus of the startup would be towards product and curriculum innovation, growth in its footprint and hiring top talent across functions.
WestBridge Capital Managing Director Sandeep Singhal said, “We are excited to double down our investment in LEAD, to support in its mission of transforming the education sector in India and touching lives of millions of students.”
In the long term, the company plans to go deeper in the country to serve students in lower fee schools and expand internationally in similar geographies, it said in a press release.
The company’s valuation doubled in less than a year
The company’s valuation has doubled in the last nine months on the back of solid growth in its operating and financial metrics. The current round is its fifth round of institutional funding since 2017.
Founded in 2012, co-founders Sumeet Yashpal Mehta and Smita Deorah started Lead School to integrate its platform to help children from low-income family’s secure books and other resources from vendors directly, thereby cutting mediators.
The company claims to work with over 5,000 schools across 500 cities in India. It also claims to have achieved an annual contract value of $80 million in the fiscal year 2022. It now aims to reach 2 million students by the next fiscal year of 2023.
Lead School “acts as the Intel inside for affordable schools and guarantees 70 percent mastery in all subjects and all grades for low and middle-income students and exceeds the guarantee,” Deborah Quazzo, Managing Partner at GSV Ventures, said.
