Matrix leads funding round in marketplace for supplementary education Purple Squirrel

Mumbai-based Purple Squirrel Eduventures Pvt Ltd, which connects students with industry partners for field visits, workshops and hands on experiences, has raised an undisclosed amount in a second round of VC funding led by Matrix Partners India.

Existing investor India Quotient, which had invested an undisclosed amount in the company last year, also participated in the current round of funding.

Started by Aditya Gandhi and Sahiba Dhandhania in September 2013, Purple Squirrel Eduventures is an experiential learning enabler promoting industry-academia interaction. Gandhi has a degree in B.Tech + M.Tech, Computer Science & Engineering, from IIT Bombay and Sahiba is a gold medalist and an Economics graduate from Christ University, Bangalore.

The company creates programs for colleges, wherein students visit and interact with both startups and other big companies. These visits are tailored keeping in mind student profiles and industry expectations.

"Our programs are fast gaining acceptance across major universities as an aid to classroom education to produce industry-ready graduates," Aditya Gandhi, alumni of IIT Bombay and co-founder of Purple Squirrel Eduventures stated.

The funds raised would be utilised towards product and operation expansions, he added.

The company claims it has delivered over 5000 unique experiences in experiential learning, associating with more than 350 campuses and corporates, across around 12 destinations.

The venture was incubated at SINE, IIT Bombay.

"Purple Squirrel has a unique business model and targets a large, underserved market. We remain extremely positive on education tech in India and will make multiple investments in the space," Gourav Bhattacharya, vice president at Matrix Partners, said.

Matrix is a multi-stage investment firm that makes seed-stage VC deals to growth equity PE investments.