KKR and PSP back Lighthouse Learning to scale Indian firm

KKR and a new institutional partner, Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), have agreed a fresh capital arrangement that keeps KKR as the majority holder in India’s Lighthouse Learning Group while introducing PSP as a minority investor. The move is positioned to accelerate classroom roll‑out and strengthen the group’s teaching and technology backbone.

Headquartered in India and operating under a cluster of well‑known brands, Lighthouse Learning Group serves more than 190,000 students daily through a network of over 1,850 preschools and 60 K‑12 schools. The business, which includes names such as EuroKids, Kangaroo Kids and EuroSchool among others, has expanded rapidly via both organic openings and selective acquisitions.

The fresh capital injection — provided chiefly from KKR’s resources alongside PSP’s minority commitment — will be earmarked to add new schools, deepen distribution in major urban centres and bolster digital and pedagogical capabilities. Lighthouse says the additional funding will also support operational improvement programmes designed to lift teacher training, curriculum development and safety standards across its footprint.

Industry context suggests this expansion comes at a favourable moment. The organised private segment for early childhood and K‑12 in India continues to outpace broader GDP growth as households increase spend on education and demand more structured early learning. Analysts point to sustained double‑digit growth in organised pre‑schooling and ongoing migration towards branded K‑12 chains in tier‑1 and tier‑2 cities — trends that benefit platform operators with scale and brand recognition.

Akshay Tanna, Partner and Head of India Private Equity at KKR, commented on the transaction, underlining KKR’s intention to remain closely engaged with Lighthouse’s strategy and to support continued network expansion and quality improvement. Lighthouse’s founder and Group CEO, Prajodh Rajan, emphasised that the additional capital and institutional expertise would help the group lift standards and reach more families with its “child‑first” approach.

Operationally, Lighthouse already claims a significant social and employment footprint: the platform empowers roughly 1,500 women entrepreneurs in franchise or affiliate roles and supports a direct and indirect workforce of over 22,000 people. Management says future growth will balance new openings with investments in classroom quality, teacher development and technology-enabled learning tools.

From the investor side, PSP enters with substantial firepower — the pension investor reported roughly $299.7 billion in net assets under management as of March 31, 2025 — giving Lighthouse access to long‑duration capital at a time when private capital flows into education platforms remain strong. KKR, which first backed the group in 2019 and is deploying capital mainly from its Asia‑focused pool alongside other KKR‑managed resources, will continue to steer strategy as majority shareholder.

The transaction reinforces a wider theme in India: education platforms that combine brand trust, scale and operational rigor remain attractive to global institutional investors seeking exposure to resilient domestic demand and long runway growth in schooling and early‑years services.