188 centres and counting: How Footprints Childcare is expanding across India
With plans to open 100 new centres each year while also adopting AI into its system, this New Delhi-based childcare organisation’s expansion plans are multifold.
Footprints Childcare is taking much more than baby steps in FY26. Already at 188 centres across 25 Indian cities, the New Delhi-based early childhood education provider aims to open around 100 more centres by the end of this financial year.
“We have already opened 16 new centres so far this year. We’re planning to add around 100 centres every subsequent year. Our main focus is to expand across the top 15 cities in India. This year, we are primarily focusing on Hyderabad, Pune, and Mumbai,” says Co-founder and CEO Raj Singhal.
With a stronghold in the Delhi-NCR region and Bengaluru, with over 80 and 50 centres, respectively, the pre-school chain plans to expand in Kochi, Indore, Jaipur, and Lucknow. Each centre has 10-20 trained staff members, depending on the number and age mix of children.
Tweaking the existing system
Starting in 2013, Footprints offered optional services, including meals and CCTV monitoring, which it has since made permanent features of its schooling ecosystem.
For pre-school, the institution charges between Rs 6,500 and Rs 13,000 per month, and for daycare, it’s between Rs 14,000 and Rs 21,000. These prices vary with cities, and particular locations in those cities.
“Let’s take the example of Bengaluru. The rent to set up camp in Yelahanka is cheaper than the rent in a location like HSR Layout. So, we have incorporated that into our pricings with the former having a cheaper monthly rate as compared to the latter,” Singhal tells YourStory.
Outside of its educational and caregiving services, Footprints also offers corporate solutions, ranging from setting up its daycare facility in a company’s premises to establishing corporate tie-ups.
“We are slightly late to this as we started looking at it post-COVID. We have about 60 corporate tie-ups right now and about 18 on-site centres. We are hoping to add 25 more such centres where employees can leave their children at the facility and focus on their work,” he says.
Footprints admits children between 9 months and 5.5 years old. It also offers an after-school care programme for formal school-going children up to the age of 9, where it takes care of them and helps with their homework and other school activities until their parents get off work.
With a market size of $4.6 billion, the Indian pre-school industry is set to reach $11 billion by 2033, a report by IMARC Group suggests. Singhal believes that with urbanisation, rising dual-income households, and increasing demand for quality early education, this space is poised for significant disruption.
“At Footprints, we aim to capture 5% of this market within the next 5 years, backed by our tech-led, trust-first approach, and strong operational foundation across India,” he says
Adopting AI
Footprints always had a progressive attitude towards adapting to emerging technology in the education sector. Already equipped with live CCTV feed, it is now dabbling with artificial intelligence (AI) to use the data for deeper analysis.
“With AI analysing the CCTV feed, we don’t need to manually check if the required activities like cleaning have happened anymore. AI can also detect if a child is going unmonitored without any adult supervision. Those are the times when injuries usually happen. We are now able to detect those and alert the centre director so that timely action can be taken,” he explains.
The COVID-19 episode
As an educational centre, Footprints was deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. All the centres had been closed for two years during the lockdowns and were only allowed to reopen in March 2022. While the institute tried to make an impact in the online space, it didn’t work out too well.
And the challenges were multi-fold once it reopened. Besides its business getting affected, the two years of pandemic had also deeply impacted the mental health of toddlers and younger children—Footprints’ student base.
“After reopening, we discovered that the situation was much worse than we had anticipated. One-and-a-half-year-old children were not able to walk or talk. We had to modify our curriculum significantly to ensure the development delays would not further harm a child,” the co-founder says.
Footprints also educated parents on speaking to their children continuously, so their language skills continue to improve.
Funding and the future
Last year, the education provider clocked nearly Rs 58 crore in annual revenue. It expects Rs 82 crore in revenue this year, following the addition of more centres.
According to Singhal, Footprints has had almost 30,000 students since its inception and has about 10,000 students onboard this year across various programmes.
Footprints recently raised $7.5 million in funding in a Series A funding round led by Tanglin Venture Partners to invest in multiple areas.
“On the business side, we are doubling down on our corporate offerings. On the technological front, we are incorporating more AI features. Our goal is to be able to use AI to monitor engagement through the CCTV feeds. But the ultimate goal has always been to be present in every neighbourhood in Indian cities, and that still remains unchanged,” the CEO says.
Competing with other childcare providers like Kidzee and Kangaroo Kids, Footprints separates itself due to its live CCTV parental access, AI-powered safety and hygiene monitoring, and its HighScope curriculum—a globally acclaimed, research-based framework, focusing on active learning and independent thinking.
(The copy was updated with additional information)
Edited by Suman Singh