Bangalore-based training platform Skyfi secures undisclosed amount from Chennai Angels and Spark Capital

Bangalore-based Skyfi Labs (Skyfi) has raised an undisclosed investment from The Chennai Angels (TCA) and investment bank Spark Capital. The round was led by Padma Chandrasekaran, a TCA member and Vijay Radhakrishnan of Spark Capital.

Skyfi will use the funds to expand its reach to cover 1000 new colleges, increase and refine the course offerings and enhance back-end technology.

Skyfi has so far trained over 25,000 students from more than 150 colleges via short term (two to three days) courses in areas such as robotics, aero-modelling, web and mobile app development, civil engineering as well as SLATE, which is offered in partnership with engineering colleges across eight semesters of an undergraduate program.

Skyfi uses its brand courses AerotriX, Civil Simplified, Roboversity and Code Instruct to deliver these programs.

Speaking about the investment, Pavan Ponnaganti, Founder and CEO of SkyFi Labs, said, “We are very excited to partner with The Chennai Angels. While the funding is no doubt useful, the connections, credentials and mentoring that the members of TCA bring in, is the real bonus. Our mission is to equip Indian engineering graduates with the right combination of praxis and theory and TCA’s investment will help us do that.”

Launched in 2010 by Pavan and Aditya Chundi, Skyfi brings value to the engineering market space by developing structured training programs that involve both offline and online activities to help students acquire relevant skills in the areas of Computer Science, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.

India produces over a million engineering graduates every year from around 3500 colleges. However, a study conducted by India employability report by Aspiring Minds revealed that over 75% of engineer graduates are not employable considering the skill metrics.

Startups like Skyfi Labs and FACE among several others aim to capture training market share by providing better skill via their training and workshop campaigns.

Vijay Radhakrishnan, CFO of Spark Capital, said, “We were impressed with the young and dynamic founding team that Skyfi possesses and the relevance of its offerings, which seek to buttress the formal education that engineering students undergo with a very practical, application-oriented and hands-on approach to learning about how things work.”