Back to feeds

Left her high paying job to build an 8370 CR company in rural education. 1. Despite a flourishing eight-year corporate career with Procter and Gamble (P&G), Smita Deorah felt her role was unfulfilled. She was troubled by the inequalities in India's education system, where only 8 out of 280 million children received quality education. She wanted to do something. 🤔 2. She left P&G and started Sparsh, a non-profit organization that aims to improve the quality of education in Maharashtra's 16 Anganwadis (rural childcare centres). To this end, she created "Pre-School in a Box" with teaching tools to prepare for formal schooling. But there were challenges. 👇 3. Resistance from educators and limited infrastructure made her survival challenging. She knew the solution was to set up a school with resources and execute simultaneously. In 2012, she started with 14 students in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, with her husband(Sumeet). Lead School was born. 🚀 4. Her vision was simple ⏩ Bridge the gap between elite urban schools and low-income or rural communities. She wanted to solve this via technology but struggled to balance traditional schooling methods and technological solutions. Then, it struck her. 💡 5. If she could improve the platform's usability and make an integrated tech solution that combines with existing pedagogies, Schools would not have to adapt to a new solution. In 2016, she launched ELGA (English Language and General Awareness) with the same approach, but another issue arose. 👇 6. She closed 10 schools, but high customer acquisition costs and heavy investments in product development made acquiring users very hard. In 2017, it pivoted to a B2B model with a digital curriculum and teacher training programs and partnered with affordable private schools in India. And magic happened. 🪄 7. Within three years, it partnered with 800-plus schools with 300,000 students in 300 cities of India. In May 2020, it raised 211 CR led by Westbridge at a valuation of 1280 CR. As edtech became a heated battle with the rise of Byju's and Vedantu, Lead School grew with the underserved K-12 sector in Tier 2 and Tier 3. ✅ 8. By the following year, Lead School had scaled to 2000 schools and 800,000 students. And came the golden year for Edtech companies with the highest ever investment of Rs 16,000 CR in a single year. In 2021, Lead School raised 226 CR in Series D from GSV Ventures and became a 3800 CR company. But the big news came next year. 👇 9. By 12 January 2022, Lead School had helped school-powered institutions achieve 70% mastery of all subjects. It raised 749 CR, led by Westbridge, and became India's third unicorn of the year, valued at 8370 CR. 🦄 10. Today, Lead School works with 35 lakh students, 8000 schools and 50,000 teachers in 400 cities. 💪 ➡️ Smita Deorah left her high-paying job as an Associate Director at P&G to build a unicorn, solving for grassroots education in India. She is a warrior in today's society. 🙏