Venture capital firm Matrix Partners India has invested in education technology startup Toddle, which offers productivity tools for teachers across all stages of teaching and learning.
Better Capital, a pre-seed and seed-stage venture firm that invests in multiple sectors, and angel investors such as Swiggy co-founder Rahul Jaimini, also participated in this round, according to a press statement. The amounts were not disclosed.
Toddle was co-founded in July 2018 by an IIT-Kanpur alumnus and a former McKinsey employee, Deepanshu Arora, and Brown University graduate Parita Parekh. Other co-founders are Misbah Jafary, Gautam Arora, and Nikhil Poonawala.
Deepanshu Arora had earlier floated a startup named WonderBoxx, which offered hands-on learning tools for kids aged between one and eight.
"Today’s teachers are very tech-savvy and use technology for a variety of needs. The struggle is that they have to juggle between multiple tools to solve for these needs. With Toddle, our goal is to simplify the entire teaching and learning cycle with one seamless and intuitive solution," said Arora.
Toddle helps teachers streamline curriculum planning, documentation, parent communication, and analytics – all from one interface. The platform, operated by Bengaluru-based Teacher Tools Pvt. Ltd, claims that over 10,000 teachers across the world are using the app on a daily basis.
"Having been educators themselves, the Toddle team has built a world-class product that is revolutionising the way teachers plan, interact and collaborate with other teachers, students and parents," said Rajat Agarwal, director at Matrix Partners India.
Matrix had said in January last year that it closed fundraising for its third fund at $300 million. Its investments in the education sector include ed-tech startups Openhouse Technologies and Pesto.
The VC firm had exited its eight-year-old investment in Mumbai-based pre-school chain Tree House Education and Accessories Ltd in 2016 from which it made about Rs 180 crore, or close to three times the investment amount, according to VCCircle estimates.
Matrix has backed more than 60 companies including cab-hailing firm Ola, mobile payment services firm Mswipe, digital healthcare firm Practo and social commerce platform Limeroad.
Education startups have attracted considerable investor interest of late.
Ed-tech firm Byju’s is the most valued in the segment after its valuation crossed $5 billion following a funding round in March last year. In December 2018, Byju’s had secured $540 million in a round led by South African tech conglomerate Naspers. Its other investors include General Atlantic and Tencent Holdings Ltd.
In August last year, ed-tech startup AdmitKard raised $1 million from investors led by Australia-based ed-tech fund Growth DNA and Dheeraj Bhatia, the founder of Kips Learning, a professional computer education firm. The firm helps students select and apply for higher education abroad.
Other players in different verticals in the ed-tech segment include Gradeup, Unacademy, Toppr, Springboard and Adda247.