UK-based apprenticeship provider Multiverse has closed a $44m series B round backed by GV, a venture capital subsidiary of internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet.
VC firm General Catalyst led the round, with participation from Audacious Ventures, Latitude, SemperVirens, Index Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company was valued at about $200m in the series B, according to the Financial Times.
Co-founded in 2016 by Euan Blair, a son of former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Multiverse provides access to apprenticeships for a range of professions such as digital marketing, business administration, software engineering and project management.
The company, which previously operated under the name WhiteHat, claims its matchmaking process evaluates the talent and potential of applicants rather than academic achievements. It facilitates the apprenticeships by working with more than 300 business customers including Facebook, Morgan Stanley, KPMG, Fujitsu, Citi and Microsoft.
Multiverse launched a US office in New York earlier this month and will use the funding to launch technology and leadership programmes across the United States. It has raised at least $64m of funding to date.
The company secured $16m in an Index Ventures-led series A round in July 2019 that included Salesforce Ventures, the corporate venturing unit formed by enterprise software provider Salesforce, and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Lightspeed Ventures had previously led Multiverse’s $4m seed round in 2018, investing with Village Global and angel investors Anil Aggarwal and Wendy Tan White. Microsoft chairman John W Thompson is also an investor in Multiverse.