Edtech unicorn LEAD ropes in Arpit Jain as CFO, Arvind Singhal as CGO

Edtech unicorn LEAD has roped in Arpit Jain as the Chief Financial Officer and Arvind Singhal as the Chief Growth Officer to strengthen its leadership team. The development comes amid a series of recent top-level movements in the edtech sector.

The Mumbai-based firm said that Singhal will help develop and implement the company's growth strategy to serve more schools and students across India, while Jain will spearhead the finance and legal functions of the group.

A Chartered Accountant by profession, Jain had earlier worked with FMCG major Marico for over 11 years. Most recently, he served as the CFO-Digital Business and Head of Mergers and Acquisitions. He had also worked at ITC.

Singhal, on the other hand, joins from Vedantu, where he spent over three years as the Chief Operating Officer. He was succeeded by Arnab Dutta as COO at Vedantu.

He brings executive-level expertise covering sales, marketing, product management, strategy, operations, and overall business P&L. He has held leadership roles in various companies, including BlackBuck, BlueStone, TFS/Ola, McDonald’s, Reliance Communications, Nokia, and Marico, the company said.

“Together, Arvind and Arpit bring decades of valuable experience and proven track record in financial and operational success; scaling businesses; serving customers; and building high-performance teams,” Sumeet Mehta, Co-founder and CEO of LEAD, said in a statement.

He noted that the duo will provide strategic direction to accelerate the adoption of school edtech across India.

These key appointments coincide with LEAD’s efforts to expand into new regions through new school partnerships and growth within its current school networks.

Founded in 2012 by Mehta and Smita Deorah, LEAD offers a comprehensive integrated system encompassing software, hardware, curriculum, books, school kits, and training sessions, serving over 9,000 schools, 50,000 teachers, five million students in over 400 towns and cities across India. 

In 2023, LEAD forayed into the high-fee school segment by strategically acquiring the local K-12 learning business of London-headquartered firm Pearson. Last July, the company announced its entry into the low-fee school segment in India. It aims to improve learning outcomes across 25 million students in 60,000 schools by 2028.

The edtech company reported a loss of Rs 321.9 crore in FY23, down 18.5% from the Rs 395.3 crore loss recorded in FY22. Its operating revenue surged 106.4% to Rs 273.2 crore in FY23 compared to Rs 132.4 crore in the previous fiscal year.

According to Tracxn, LEAD has raised over $171 million to date. In January 2023, it raised $20 million in debt, following a $4.2 million debt round from Alteria Capital in December 2022.

Earlier in 2022, the edtech company raised $100 million in a Series E round led by WestBridge Capital and GSV Ventures at a valuation of $1.1 billion.