The Future of Higher Education: Multiverse
Announcing Lightspeed Growth’s Series D investment in Multiverse
A little over three years ago, Lightspeed led the seed investment in Multiverse (see our initial blog post here). From the first time we met Euan, Founder and CEO, he made it clear that they’re building an outstanding alternative to college to democratize access to great careers. He underscored the word “outstanding” then, and he underscores it every single time today when he pitches CEOs of Fortune 100 companies to recruit 18-year old apprentices via Multiverse. From that first meeting onwards, we’ve only been more and more impressed with not just how the company’s vision has expanded, but also the quality of their execution on all fronts — curriculum design and delivery, apprentice community engagement, international expansion outside the UK, and the overall culture and operations at the company.
Lightspeed is fortunate to have partnered with the company since its earliest days as their first institutional investor and has been a major investor in every round since leading their seed round. Today, we’re excited to announce that Lightspeed Growth is co-leading Multiverse’s $220M Series D investment.
How does a Multiverse apprenticeship work?
Multiverse has built a fully integrated apprenticeship recruiting marketplace and training platform — one that integrates assessment, personalized applied learning, and community. An individual who goes through the Multiverse program spends at least a year as an apprentice at one of the best companies in the world, learns real-world skills while working at the employer, and gets trained on the fundamentals of their chosen area of focus through Multiverse’s training program. All this, while getting to work at a tier-1 employer and earning an income instead of paying a hefty tuition fee. There’s no hidden fees, no future income sharing agreements — for the apprentice, the program is truly free and in fact, they get paid for the work they do for the employer. Multiverse’s revenues come solely from the employer, who benefit from access to diverse talent with in-demand skills tailored for their specific organization, in the form of training fees.
Multiverse’s offering covers the entire lifecycle of an apprenticeship from a candidate’s point of view — matching them with employers for interviews, helping them prepare for the interview, and post selection, offering them an A+ training program focused on real world skills. The apprentice gets access to an online and offline community of other apprentices and at the end of the program, receives a formal apprenticeship certification. From an employer’s point of view, Multiverse upends how employers recruit early talent and allows them to access high-quality pre-vetted talent, who are choosing not to go to college and instead get started on their careers right away, and train them in partnership with Multiverse. A win-win.
Ultimately, the proof is in the pudding — 90% of those who complete the apprenticeship remain with their employer full time; 68% get promoted during the apprenticeship itself. Moreover, democratizing access to the best skills training has been at the center of Multiverse’s mission — of the professional apprentices that Multiverse places globally, 56% are people of color, more than half are women and 34% come from economically under-served communities.
Over the last couple of years, Multiverse has also added apprentice programs for existing employees who are looking to be re-trained with tech skills to add durability to their careers.
Why does it matter?
A high quality education can be one of the greatest levers for an individual’s life. But the cost of a college education is increasing at unprecedented rates, leaving many talented (and diverse) pools behind. By enabling 18–26 year olds to access high quality skills-based learning while getting paid, instead of being on hook to pay hefty tuition fees, Multiverse democratizes access to great careers for talented individuals regardless of economic circumstances . The demand for Multiverse’s program on both sides of the marketplace — apprentices and employers — speaks for itself. In a short span of 4.5 years since its inception, Multiverse has become the de facto apprenticeship platform for enterprises in the UK and US today with marquee logos across various industries such as Google, Verizon, the NHS, WPP, Meta, Morgan Stanley, Cisco, Adyen amongst many others.
What’s next?
Multiverse is expanding rapidly in the US and the UK, and is on an urgent mission to get apprenticeships available to every 18-year old in the world who can’t wait to get started on their career journey. The company is recruiting fast and if their mission appeals to you, check out their careers page here: https://www.multiverse.io/en-US/careers#job-list.
The Lightspeed Growth Team is excited today to be co-leading their Series D and co-invest with our friends at Audacious Ventures, General Catalyst, Stepstone, Bond, D1, Index and GV (Google Ventures) as we triple down on our belief in the team, their mission, and their offering.
By Nakul Mandan (Venture Partner, Lightspeed; Founder, Audacious Ventures), James Ephrati, Nicole Quinn, and Ravi Mhatre
