Euan Blair, the son of a former British Prime Minister, has become one of the founders of some of the UK’s richest startups after his education technology company was valued at $ 1.7 billion after his latest fundraiser background.
Multiverse, which trains and finds internships for apprentices in the US and UK, has raised $ 220 million in additional funding, doubling its valuation from eight months ago.
Blair owns between 25 and 50 percent of the business, according to documents in Companies House, which would value his stake between $ 425 and $ 850 million.
He founded Multiverse in 2016, when he shared an office with the first apprentices who did their assessments. The start-up began by leaving business cards to businesses within walking distance, but has since grown rapidly, with the number of apprentices reaching 8,000.
Multiverse said revenue had multiplied again in two years, though he declined to give figures.
In a post on LinkedIn, Blair said completing a round of funding now “was not something we set out to do.”
He added: “We raised record sums twice in 2021. Ultimately, I firmly believe in raising it long before you think you need it. Building a great alternative to college is no small effort.”
His father, Sir Tony Blair, was a staunch supporter of university degrees when he was Prime Minister, and his goal was to get half of his students to drop out of college.
The Multiverse funding round was led by existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and General Catalyst, along with new investors StepStone Group and Founders Circle Capital. Other existing investors also participated, such as BOND, D1 Capital Partners, GV, Index Ventures and Audacious Ventures.
Blair said the new money would be used to continue expansion in the US and the UK. Multiverse could provide services to 100,000 learners each year, he said. The company employs more than 600 people, most of them in the UK.
The group offers assessment and placement of apprentices, along with personalized training, and access to people, either in their first careers or moving to digital, technology and data jobs at different stages of the his life.
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He has trained apprentices with more than 500 organizations worldwide, including Cisco, Verizon, Visa, and Box in the United States. Of the apprentices that Multiverse has placed around the world, 56% are people of color, more than half are women, and 34% come from economically neglected communities.
“One of the things that’s so broken about the current system is that it’s trying to pretend that a three- or four-year degree is enough to make you go through a career of several decades,” Blair said.
“We will not make the same mistake with the learners. Our vision is a system in which people can return to learning when they need it, to improve their careers. “
Youngme Moon, a Harvard Business School professor and director of companies such as Unilever and Mastercard, has been named a member of the company’s board.
“It will involve a huge investment in technology,” Blair said. “When you think about some of the big challenges that companies are facing right now: declining enrollment in higher education, rising student debt, inertia around racial equity, distribution opportunities in a less uniform way than talent, great resignation and a lack of global skills, none of the existing solutions have been sufficient ”.