Lead School targets 20% growth in FY27, eyes IPO in two to three years

School edtech platform Lead School is targeting revenue growth of close to 20% in FY27 and expects earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) to rise as much as threefold to around Rs 90 crore, as it scales its artificial intelligence products and builds towards a public listing over the next two to three years, cofounder and chief executive Sumeet Mehta told ET.

The Mumbai-based company’s operating revenue rose 10% to Rs 386 crore in FY26 from Rs 351 crore a year earlier, while operating Ebitda increased sevenfold to Rs 30 crore from Rs 4 crore. Its net loss narrowed to around Rs 33 crore from Rs 43 crore in FY25, with Mehta expecting Lead to turn net profitable or at least break even in FY27.

The revenue growth was below the 25-30% Lead had expected for FY26. Mehta said the biggest reason was a delay in rolling out Miss Curie, its AI-powered spoken-English product, as the company spent longer testing learning outcomes amid rapid changes in underlying AI models.


“The investment went in, the revenue took some time because we wanted to test and be sure that we are launching it correctly,” he said. Disruptions to its Middle East publishing business and delays in upselling grades 9 and 10 amid uncertainty around new CBSE textbooks also weighed on growth.

Miss Curie is now being used by around 20,000 students across 70 schools and Lead plans to expand it to more than 500 schools over the coming year. Its Techbook product is already a Rs 25-30 crore business, while Mehta expects Miss Curie to reach a similar scale next year. Over time, AI-powered products could contribute 25-30% of Lead’s business, he said.

Lead currently works with around 9,000 active schools, up from about 8,400 a year earlier. It signed around 900 schools and lost about 300 during the year, resulting in roughly 600 net additions. Net revenue retention remained around 100%, short of the 110% it had targeted, largely because the delayed AI launch and textbook uncertainty held back upselling.

Mehta also tempered Lead’s earlier ambitions of reaching 60,000 schools, saying it now expects to reach 20,000-25,000 over the next five years. Lead had in 2023 said it aimed to reach 60,000 schools, while last year it outlined a target of 25,000 schools and 10 million students by 2030.

“I don’t think with learning systems alone we will get to 60,000 because learning systems require a full transformation of schools and not a lot of private schools are ready for that,” Mehta said. Easier-to-adopt products such as Miss Curie and its foundation programme would drive a larger share of future school additions, he added.

Learning systems accounted for around 76% of FY26 revenue and publishing the rest. Lead acquired Pearson’s India K-12 business in 2023, which ET had reported would expand its network to around 9,000 schools from 3,500. Lead has since been converting some of those publishing customers to its full learning system, with about 100 schools upgraded in each of the past two years. Such conversions increase revenue per school about threefold, Mehta said.

Mehta, cofounder Smita Deorah and an existing investor also recently infused Rs 21 crore into Lead to fund its AI initiatives. The company does not need external capital for organic growth, he said, although it could raise money to fund an acquisition. Lead last raised a major equity round in 2022, when it secured $100 million at a $1.1 billion valuation.

On an IPO, Mehta said the company continues to receive approaches from investment bankers but wants to first reach a larger revenue and profitability base. “Between FY28 and FY29 we will be in a good place,” he said.