Alumni Ventures

Purple Arch Ventures is a venture capital fund for alumni of Northwestern University and friends of the Northwestern community, based in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 2017, it operates as part of the Alumni Ventures (AV) network — recognized as the most active venture firm in the United States and third globally by PitchBook in 2022, with more than $1 billion raised across 18 university-affiliated communities. The fund is now deploying its eighth annual vintage under Managing Partner David Beazley, a 25-year investment professional and Northwestern alumnus. Each annual fund constructs a diversified portfolio of 20 to 30 co-invested positions across SaaS, healthtech, fintech, AI, biotech, and clean technology, investing at Seed through Series C+ stages. Co-investors have included General Catalyst, Union Square Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, Founders Fund, Bessemer, Greylock, Lightspeed, and Y Combinator. Across 150 total investments to date, notable portfolio companies include Hopscotch Primary Care, Ion Storage Systems, Dimension Inx (3D-printed synthetic bone grafts), Epicore Biosystems (wearable electrolyte monitoring), and EarlyBird, a child-investing platform. The most recent disclosed exit was Prima in February 2025. Purple Arch offers members two paths into the portfolio: participation in the annual fund vehicle, which provides broad diversification with a single commitment, and deal-by-deal syndication access at low minimums for members who prefer direct exposure to individual opportunities. The fund's Northwestern connection requirement — founders, operators, or investors with university ties — creates a concentrated, high-signal deal network that the managing team uses to source alongside the nation's top-tier institutional co-investors.