Inside Gurgaon’s private equity-backed schools: Why firms are investing and how classrooms are changing | Delhi News
In 2024, two private equity (PE) and venture capital veterans — Piyush Gupta and Norbert Fernandes — set out to build a new investment firm, Kenro Capital, at a time when artificial intelligence (AI) had become the industry’s most overused buzzword. They started with a quieter, almost philosophical question that has been echoing through boardrooms and venture circles as AI accelerates its reach: In a rapidly changing AI-driven world, what are the things that will not change? The premise was not that AI would reshape everything — but that it would come close. The real challenge was identifying the rare corners of life that would remain stubbornly human. “One answer that stood out was high-touch businesses like schools. People will always send their children to schools,” Fernandes says. With this conviction, Kenro Capital invested roughly Rs 340 crore in K12 Techno Services Private Limited at the end of 2024, best known for its flagship chain, Orchids: The International School. And Kenro Capital is not alone in making that bet. Across India, private equity firms are …
