In conversation with LEAD’s Sumeet Mehta; Culture Circle’s strategy for resale market

Hello,

Swiggy is going all in on its dark store network.

The food and grocery delivery firm said it would invest up to Rs 1,000 crore in its unit Scootsy Logistics to meet its working capital and capital expenditure requirements.

Scootsy provides services such as warehouse management and processing to improve order deliveries and shipping processes for wholesalers and retailers. This investment would help fuel the expansion of its quick commerce arm Instamart, which is in fierce competition with Zomato’s Blinkit and Zepto, among other platforms.

Meanwhile, there’s a tussle going on over in the AI sector as well. DeepSeek, the newest AI kid on the block, is doubling down on its open-source approach to AI development, with plans to release key codes and data to the public starting next week. 

OpenAI, on the other hand, is looking beyond answering prompts to making its very own J.A.R.V.I.S. a reality. The ChatGPT maker said Operator, its AI agent tool, will be available for ChatGPT Pro subscribers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, and Japan, among other countries. 

The tool can be instructed to do things like book tickets, make restaurant reservations, file expense reports, or shop on ecommerce websites.

The next step in the evolution of AI is here.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• In conversation with LEAD’s Sumeet Mehta
• Culture Circle’s strategy for resale market
• Finding inequalities in educational spaces

Here’s your trivia for today: What was the name of Google’s failed attempt at launching a Wikipedia rival, which lasted only from 2008 to 2012?

Edtech

In conversation with LEAD’s Sumeet Mehta

Learning begins in schools—period. The seven hours students spend each day navigating the K-12 system shape their academic foundation and future prospects. Without a strong foundation, students struggle to bridge the gap between their potential and the skills needed to succeed in an increasingly competitive world. 

This is where public-private partnerships come in—an approach where experienced private players can take charge of some government schools with an outcome-driven model, says Sumeet Mehta, Co-founder and CEO of LEADGroup, a school-focused edtech unicorn. 

Partnerships:

• Start small with a public-private partnership, giving the top 10 K-12 players 500 schools each. After two years, evaluate outcomes. If it is better, expand to 10,000-20,000 schools. Then at least you have a model which can show that there is a path to delivering outcomes, Mehta explains.
• He adds that many private players will be willing to work because they know that they can deliver. If they run 500 schools, they can generate revenue, even if it’s a crore per school, it’s a decent revenue to build. And if it is profitable, then you will also encourage innovation to come in.
• “Education is a long-term, boring business. You just have to put your head down, keep doing that thing really well, and keep getting better at it. Every year, we learn what worked and what did not, and we keep improving what didn’t work,” he says.

Top Funding Deals of the Week

Startup: Lightstorm

Amount: Rs 700 Cr

Round: Fresh

Startup: Udaan

Amount: $75M

Round: Series G

Startup: Stelmec Ltd

Amount: Rs 175 Cr

Round: Undisclosed

Startup

Culture Circle’s strategy for resale market

The luxury resale market in India is evolving rapidly, with a growing demand for premium fashion, especially streetwear and sneakers. However, trust and transparency remain a challenge for most consumers.

To address this, Ackshay Jain and his childhood friend Devansh Jain co-founded Culture Circle in 2023. The Gurugram-based startup offers an authenticated collection of sneakers, streetwear, and luxury fashion, including handbags, sunglasses, jackets, and dresses. 

Luxe shop:

• Culture Circle began as a weekend project at a Goa hackathon, where it quickly gained traction, amassing over 30,000 organic users within months. This success led to the start of Culture Circle in September 2023.
• Its proprietary authentication system, SourceX, aggregates data from hundreds of global websites, offering a vast marketplace for buyers and sellers. It sources listings from over 240 platforms and connects users with more than 3,000 verified sellers.
• The platform features around 2.5 million active listings. It enables users to compare prices across multiple sellers and access exclusive offers from top brands like Nike, Adidas, Louis Vuitton, Yeezy, and Dior.

Education

Finding inequalities in educational spaces

Students and teachers from marginalised communities often face subtle forms of discrimination in Indian educational spaces. Aaina Education, a social media initiative, aims to change that by engaging Indians with such realities and talking about the lived experiences of marginalised communities in navigating the complexities of educational spaces.

"We felt that among both teachers and students, there was not enough space or opportunity to reflect on (pedagogical) practice," recounts Sayan Chaudhuri, a faculty member at Young India Fellowship, Ashoka University, who co-founded Aaina Education in 2021 along with Vrinda Bhatia, a PhD student at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Key takeaways:

• Aaina Education was founded to "communicate critical perspectives in education in ways that were more experience-based and involved dialogue and conversation." The founders chose social media to drive discourse and reach younger audiences.
• Aaina also has a YouTube podcast called 'Aaina Conversations' on teaching practices and how they are conceptualised by teachers. These episodes focus on issues such as inclusion in the classroom as well as democratising teaching particular subjects like law and history. 
• Chaudhuri explains the workshops—funded through honorariums—aim to "enrich the vocabulary of teachers and students. We also want to make students and teachers notice power in the everyday. We want to help students build agency in addressing their problems. We also want to make students and teachers listen to each other because this is missing in the formal classroom space." 

News & updates

• More premium: Insurers are considering making New Delhi residents pay 10% to 15% more for new health policies after an extraordinary spike in claims related to air pollution in 2024 in India's capital. If approved, it would be the first time air pollution was used as a direct factor in figuring health insurance premiums in India, and could be used to justify price hikes in other cities as well.
• Bonus: Executives at Meta stand to get bigger bonuses this year. Meta has approved “an increase in the target bonus percentage” for its annual bonus plan for executives. Its named executive officers could earn a bonus of 200% of their base salary under the new plan, up from the 75% they earned previously.
• Swap: The Reserve Bank of India will conduct a massive $10 billion three-year dollar/rupee swap auction on February 28 to infuse durable rupee liquidity into the banking system, which has been reeling under large cash deficits. The first leg of the transaction could infuse around $10 billion into the banking system.

What was the name of Google’s failed attempt at launching a Wikipedia rival, which lasted only from 2008 to 2012?

Answer: Google Knol.

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