Matrix Partners Parks Rs 100 crore in FIIT JEE

The week begins with a Rs 100 crore investment by Mumbai-based Matrix Partners India in FIITJEE, an education and training company from New Delhi. As the name suggests, the company provides training for the IIT-JEE, AIEEE and other engineering entrance examinations. Started up in 1992 by founder-chairman Dinesh Kumar Goel, the company claims to have put more than 25,000 students into the various IITs till date, according to the press release. Not much information available on financial performance numbers. Update: The company plans to use the money to expand from the current 20 centers to 45 and increase the range of its services.

This will be the Boston-headquartered Matrix’s ninth investment here since it set up shop in 2006 and its second in the education space after Tree House. The India operations are headquartered in Mumbai and led by Rishi Navani (in photo) and Avnish Bajaj. It invests here from a Rs 1,500 crore dedicated India fund pool. The current portfolio has three Internet and mobile companies, AskLaila, Quikr and Seventymm; one media and entertainment company, vJive Networks; one in real estate and retail services, Brand Marketing India; one in food and beverages, Yo! China; one in financial services, Itz Cash; and two in education (mentioned above). It has a mandate to invest upto Rs 125 crore per company.

Incidentally, Matrix behaves a bit differently in India than it does at home in the US. The firm started up in August 2006 with a $150 million (about Rs 600 crore) corpus and an early-stage venture capital mandate. In mid-2007, it announced a change in focus to later-stage, growth investments. In fact, Navani and Bajaj, now prefer to have as little to do with startup investing as possible.

The move towards growth deals coincided with the expansion of the India corpus to $450 million. It is also a big departure in strategy for parent Matrix. The firm has traditionally (and still does) played in the seed to early-stage space in the US market. Also, it has a strong bias for technology companies. That said, it is not unusual for US venture capitalists to behave altogether differently in India. The demands of this market are such that the road to rich returns often compels unconventional behaviour. Matrix is just falling in line.