Less than a year after rebranding and raising $44 million, Multiverse (formerly known as White Hat) has announced that it raised an additional $130 million in Series C funding. The round was co-led by D1 Capital Partners and BOND, two longtime leaders in the world of venture capital that have backed industry giants like Amazon, Google and Facebook, and caps off more than a year of massive growth for the edtech startup.
Multiverse offers tech-focused apprenticeships for roles ranging from data science to finance, all in an effort to help young adults either upskill or reskill. Participants get access to things like one-to-one coaching and applied learning, as well as a variety of social, networking and leadership opportunities. Essentially, it wants to be an alternative to more traditional colleges or corporate training programs.
The company was founded in the U.K. in 2016 and then expanded into the United States in January, opening its U.S. headquarters in NYC earlier this month. In the months since its American launch, Multiverse has begun training professional apprentices with an impressive list of organizations, including Google, fitness unicorn ClassPass and Ayden. Today, the company says it has more than 5,000 apprentices and alumni — more than the entire annual undergrad intake of both Harvard College and Oxford University.
“We have spent the last few years building a truly outstanding alternative to university and corporate training, and this latest funding round is recognition of how far this cause has come,” Multiverse founder and CEO Euan Blair said in a statement. “Professional apprenticeships are transforming the opportunities available to people in the U.K. and now the U.S. — we’ve seen a range of the world’s best employers grow their programs significantly over the last year.”
Professional development resources like Multiverse’s have been in hot demand over the last 18 months as the job market continues to shift. Between the fluctuating economy, changing consumer habits and the evolving face of work amid this global health crisis, employees and employers around the world are reevaluating their jobs, skills and overall positions within the workforce.
This, incidentally, has created a window of opportunity for Multiverse and the kinds of apprenticeships it offers. In fact, the company says it has grown four-fold in just the last year.
“Employers are all asking a similar question: how do we access the best talent and the skills we need, and make sure the opportunities created in the post-Covid recovery are spread more equitably? Talent is everywhere but companies will only hire the best if they reach beyond traditional sources,” Blair continued. “Our apprenticeships allow employers to look beyond academic achievements and hire and develop people based on things that really matter: potential, character and performance.”
Multiverse is also trying to leverage its position as a way to educate and bridge opportunity gaps for traditionally underrepresented groups in the tech space, and claims 53 percent of apprentices placed in roles by Multiverse are people of color and 36 percent are from economically disadvantaged communities.The startup was also recently endorsed as a talent developer for OneTen, a coalition of business executives who have committed to upskilling, hiring and advancing one million American Black professionals without four-year degrees over the next 10 years.
In short, Multiverse is working to tackle one of the biggest challenges facing the tech industry today: cultivating a more equitable and inclusive workforce by removing the financial barriers to entry.
“We believe Multiverse is expanding access to wage-growth and social mobility for employees from a broad range of backgrounds while creating substantial value for employers,” Jeremy Goldstein, an investor at D1 Capital Partners, said in a statement. “We are excited to invest and help Multiverse scale its model globally.”
Indeed, the company says this fresh funding will largely be used to expand its presence across the United States and the U.K. It is also hiring, with nearly 80 open tech positions available at its offices in London and NYC.
