Edtech startup LEAD bets on AI-led personalised learning at scale

Edtech firm LEAD Group has introduced Ms. Curie, an artificial intelligence-powered tutor designed to act as a relatable companion for students. The first programme launched on this platform is Fluento, an AI-led spoken English solution that claims to move beyond traditional text-based learning to foster conversational confidence.

The idea here is to bridge the gap between understanding and speaking by introducing a solution that helps students practice and use English actively, even in environments where their mother tongue dominates daily life.

This evolution follows the company’s 2024 launch of TECHBOOKS, which are physical textbooks integrated with digital features such as augmented reality to provide a tailored learning experience. By moving from static practice to interactive dialogue, the edtech firm is attempting to solve one of the most persistent hurdles in mass education.

The shift towards Ms. Curie represents a strategic bet on the humanisation of AI, the company said. While many educational tools rely on a standard screen interface, LEAD discovered that young learners, particularly those between classes one and eight, often feel friction when interacting with purely functional software.

“It was very important to humanise her because we realised when we were testing with students, they hesitate to interact with the software like a screen which has numbers and drawings. But the moment an animated character comes, it is almost like they are able to interact,” explained Sumeet Mehta, Co-founder and CEO of LEAD Group.

The broader edtech industry in India is also pivoting towards these individualised tools. Companies such as PhysicsWallah have introduced AI Guru for doubt solving, while ALLEN has launched Allie as a 24x7 study buddy. LEAD is specifically targeting the school environment to address a structural problem that has existed for decades.

The architecture

At the heart of this technological push is the desire to break the structural 1-40 teaching model. In a standard classroom, a single teacher is responsible for roughly forty students, each with different levels of understanding and prerequisite knowledge. This ratio makes it nearly impossible for a teacher to identify and fix every individual learning gap in real time.

“What we have been unable to break is this 1:40 construct. Everybody talks about the two sigma problem in education. All of us know that one-on-one tutoring is the gold standard but it is so expensive nobody can afford,” Mehta noted.

By integrating Ms. Curie into the school day, the group aims to provide the benefits of one-on-one tutoring without the prohibitive costs. Fluento by Ms. Curie is priced at around Rs 2,000 per student per year. This includes 12 months of access to Ms. Curie, allowing students to practise speaking and hold conversations, along with reading and teaching materials such as books.

The Fluento programme is specifically designed for the Indian ecosystem, where English fluency is often tied to career prospects and salary potential. In many towns, students face what Mehta calls a triple gap.

“In non-metros, there has to be something additional done to fill the gap. One gap is in families, mother tongue is spoken. In the neighbourhood, mother tongue is spoken. Even in school, teachers speak the mother tongue. So there is no opportunity to develop the skill of spoken English,” he remarked.

Ms. Curie aims to fill this void by providing a non-judgmental space for students to listen, repeat, and eventually converse. Early pilots in 10 schools across Mumbai, Bangalore, and Delhi have shown that students improved their conversational ability by 1.4 times within just one unit of content.

Unlike business-to-consumer apps that require high self-motivation, this model is school-led, so students engage with the tutor as part of their regular curriculum.

Business with schools

A bigger push into AI-led personalisation comes as LEAD Group continues to improve its financials in a sustainable manner.

“We will deliver growth both on revenue and on EBITDA,” said Mehta, adding that the revenue growth is likely to be lower than 30% in the financial year ended March (FY26), clarifying that the financial numbers haven’t been audited.

“Our long-term path of course is to become cash break-even (in FY27),” he noted, adding that the company plans to add close to 900 schools to its learning system base this year.

While 100 schools took up the product in its first year, that number has already more than doubled, as “250 schools are going to be running TECHBOOKS this year”.

This growth is showing in the product’s contribution to the company’s overall revenue. From representing only 2-3% of the business last year, TECHBOOK is projected to touch about 10% this year.

The company expects this upward trajectory to be further bolstered by the launch of its AI-powered tutor, predicting that Ms. Curie will again add another 10% in FY28.

Looking at the long-term strategy for the next three to five years, LEAD anticipates a fundamental shift in its business model. 

Mehta projects that “40% of our business will be AI-led”. The rationale behind this shift is that while the traditional learning system provides a “more predictable growth rate,” AI-led innovations offer “larger time and higher growth opportunities,” leading to a steady increase in their proportion of the company’s total business.

Looking ahead, the future of educational AI will likely depend on vertical contextualisation rather than just raw computing power, as foundational models from companies like OpenAI and Google increasingly become the underlying infrastructure, shifting the real value to how effectively these models are applied to specific classroom needs.

LEAD is already initiating conversations for partnerships with these global AI giants to leverage their technology while providing the distribution network of thousands of Indian schools.