Founder

Smita Deorah

LEAD School

“One day I became curious about the quality of the preschool my maid’s child attended. I walked in and saw thirty kids of various ages, cleaning and loitering around a dilapidated building, while my own two-year-old was learning how to read in a good preschool. This experience shook me and I knew instantly that this was going to be my life's work: bringing equity in education to all kids in India.“

Partnered in: 2020
Focus areas:
- Education
- Technology

About Smita

A finance professional-turned-educator, Smita has over 22 years of experience in finance, strategy, leadership and education, nine of those at Procter & Gamble Singapore and India where she held leadership positions in these disciplines.

Smita is driven by a deep conviction that sustainable and transformative change in educational outcomes can only be brought about by high quality school systems. Her first foray into education start-ups was through founding Sparsh, an NGO that worked to improve government childcare centers where she implemented a ‘pre-school in a box’ solution that better prepared students for school, and helped reduce dropouts and low attendance.

Her journey with LEAD Schools and scaling it to become India's leading school-based ed tech company has taught her that big, seemingly impossible dreams can indeed come true. Today, LEAD is solving some of the deepest, most complex problems at the heart of India’s educational system by making excellent education both accessible and affordable for students in affordable private schools in small towns across the country.