Our founders, Sumeet Mehta and Smita Deorah, started LEAD Group in 2012 with a vision to provide disruptive school ed-tech solutions.
Since then, LEAD Group has grown into a team of proficient individuals striving to transform education.
Together we aspire to make excellent education accessible and affordable to every child.
Sumeet Mehta is Co-Founder and CEO of LEAD Group, India’s only School Learning System unicorn.
As Co-Founder and CEO of LEAD Group, Sumeet’s mission is to make excellent education
accessible to every child, by transforming schools across India. Sumeet draws inspiration
from his journey of growing up in a family of teachers in a small town in India. After running
consumer product businesses in Singapore and running an Education company in India,
Sumeet became a teacher and opened schools in talukas of Maharashtra. His experience of
running schools helped him develop the LEAD Learning System and implement it in other schools.
LEAD Group transforms a school’s learning outcomes by empowering teachers, school principals
and students. It achieves this by combining deeply researched curriculum, pedagogy, and
technology into a simple school-in-a-box solution. LEAD Group today reaches
over 8,500 schools across India, improves learning outcomes for over 3.8+ million students; and empowers more than 60,000 teachers.
Before founding LEAD Group, Sumeet was Chief Executive Officer at Zee Learn (2007 to
2012) which grew 5X during his tenure. Prior to this, Sumeet spent eight years at Procter &
Gamble, Singapore, where he led Healthcare and Skincare businesses across the APAC region before returning to India and settling in Mumbai.
An alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad and PEC Chandigarh, Sumeet grew up in Pathankot,
Punjab, and currently lives in Mumbai with his mother Brij; his spouse, Smita, who is also Co-CEO and Co-Founder, LEAD Group; and their two teenage kids.
Sumeet is an avid reader and loves traveling to new countries.
Smita Deorah is Co-Founder and Co-CEO at LEAD Group, India’s only School Learning System unicorn.
With over 22 years of experience, Smita has built innovative curricula to transform teaching
– learning in India’s schools, and has trained educators across India.
At LEAD Group, Smita steers education research, product development and capability
building. She has been instrumental in developing the LEAD Learning System, which is
benchmarked with the best education systems globally, and contextualised for India’s
schools. The LEAD Learning System transforms a school’s learning outcomes by
empowering teachers, school principals and students. It achieves this by combining deeply-
researched curriculum, pedagogy, and technology into a simple school-in-a-box solution that
moves students away from rote learning towards conceptual understanding.
LEAD Group today reaches over 8500 schools across India; improves outcomes for over 3.8
million students; and empowers more than 60,000 teachers.
Prior to co-founding LEAD Group, Smita founded Sparsh, an NGO that worked for the uplift
of Anganwadis in Mumbai, in association with the Maharashtra government. She
implemented a ‘pre-school in a box’ solution in 16 Anganwadis to prepare students for
school, and to reduce dropouts and low attendance.
Smita has been recognised by The Economic Times as one of India’s Top 29 Corporate
Leaders and as one of the top 100 female entrepreneurs who are building and shaping India.
Shantanu is an esteemed personality in the consumer business segment in India. Managing an array of consumer marketing functions for over two decades now, he currently offers his expertise to Crompton Greaves’ Consumer Business as the Executive Vice President and Managing Director. His immense experience, expert leadership, and management knowledge have expedited LEAD Group’s journey from an aspiring start-up to an organization that supports over 3500+ schools. He has been a board member of LEAD Group since 2017.
Shantanu had been on the path of excellence long before extending his proficiency to LEAD Group as a board member. He is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and holds the degree of Masters in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He has also served as the Managing Director of Procter & Gamble.
Sandeep is Founder & Managing Partner at Elevar Equity, a firm driven to work with early stage companies that foster economic development for low income communities. For over 25 years, Sandeep has been working in diverse areas – from providing formal financial services in emerging markets to guiding non-profit organisations in education, healthcare, and agriculture sectors. Sandeep strongly believes that LEAD Group can truly transform the Indian education landscape. He has been a board member of LEAD Group since 17th August 2017.
Sandeep has an integrated law and arts degree from the National Law School of India University (NLS). He established Unitus in India, and actively partnered and supported many leading microfinance institutions and banks in India during their formative years.
Shreyansh Singh is a Board Member at LEAD Group, bringing over eight years of experience across public investing, private equity, and investment banking. Before joining LEAD Group, he served as the Principal at WestBridge Capital, where he worked on identifying and managing growth opportunities across sectors.
Prior to WestBridge, Shreyansh was an Associate at Providence Equity Partners, focusing on late-stage investments across South Asia. He began his career at Morgan Stanley as an Investment Banking Analyst, advising financial services, technology, and internet companies on mergers & acquisitions and capital market transactions.
Shreyansh holds a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Ajay drives the design and development of products at LEAD Group for all users, i.e, teachers, students, parents, principals, academic coordinators and school owners. He ensures that the users have a seamless and delightful experience, while delivering the best education possible to the students.
Ajay comes with 16 years of experience in product management, entrepreneurship, data science and consulting. In his last role, he was the CEO and Founder of Boxx.ai, which was later acquired by Netcore. Prior to that, Ajay has worked in McKinsey, RedPill (later acquired by IBM) and Crayon. Ajay is an alumnus of IIT Bombay.
Narasimha Prasad Bulusu is an accomplished HR leader with nearly 15 years of cross-functional experience in building people-first cultures and driving strategic talent initiatives across high-growth organisations. As the Head of Human Resources at LEAD Group, he spearheads leadership development, culture transformation, and talent strategies that enable the organisation to scale its impact in the education sector.
Before joining LEAD Group, Narasimha was Director – Total Rewards at Myntra, where he led the company’s compensation and benefits philosophy, restructured the ESOP framework, and introduced innovative employee wellbeing programs. Earlier, he served as Director – Human Resources at BlackBuck (Zinka Logistics Solutions), overseeing HR operations through key phases of growth and expansion.
His career spans leadership roles at Cipla and Lodha Group, along with early professional experience at Amazon and Tata Motors, where he developed a deep understanding of organisational design, performance management, and workforce strategy.
Narasimha holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resource Management (PGDHRM) from XLRI Jamshedpur and a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian School of Mines (now IIT Dhanbad).
Moiz Saif is a seasoned finance professional with over 15 years of experience spanning corporate finance, investment banking, and strategic growth. As the Chief Financial Officer at LEAD Group, he oversees financial strategy, investor relations, and corporate development, driving the organization’s long-term growth and operational excellence.
Before assuming the CFO role, Moiz led Corporate Development and New Business at LEAD Group, where he played a pivotal role in shaping strategic partnerships, driving fundraising initiatives, and steering the company’s expansion roadmap.
Prior to joining LEAD Group, he spent more than a decade in investment banking as Executive Vice President at a leading mid-market advisory firm, where he advised on led M&A transactions, private equity investments, and capital raising across diverse sectors.
Moiz holds an MBA in Finance and Strategy from the Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay, and is a CFA Charterholder.
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LEAD is an integrated system of education that equips schools with innovative...
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