Edtech company LEAD raises $20 Mn in debt round

Edtech unicorn LEAD (formerly Lead School) has raised Rs 160 crore or about $20 million in a debt round from Alteria Capital and Stride Ventures. Standard Chartered Bank, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank have also participated. This is the first debt round of the Mumbai-based company in 2023 which turned unicorn in January last year.

Entrackr had exclusively reported the development in December.

LEAD adds to the existing infrastructure of schools by providing them digital resources, books, and designing curriculum, teacher training, teacher manuals, ERPs, and math-science kits among others. As per the company’s website, it has a presence in over 400 cities across more than 20 states along with 25K teachers onboard and a student base of over 1.2 million.

Soon after the unicorn round, LEAD announced an ESOP liquidation plan of close to $3 million for its employees. The company also laid off anywhere between 80-90 employees in August last year for cost cutting measures. Entrackr had exclusively reported about the layoff. On Tuesday, it also announced another layoff. As per the company, the layoffs have been made as per the annual business cycle.

Last week, LEAD acquired learning company Pearson’s K-12 (kindergarten through standard 12) business in India for an undisclosed amount. The firm registered a 2.3X growth in operating revenue to Rs 133.2 crore in FY22 from Rs 57 crore in FY21. As per the annual financial statement with the RoC, its losses also spiked over three folds to Rs 397 crore in FY22 in contrast to Rs 126 crore in FY21.